A shopping centre is set for a redevelopment following the departure of two major retailers. St Elli Centre, located at the heart of Llanelli town, is set to lose Sports Direct this month.
It comes after the closure of Wilko, which had been located in the middle of the centre for more than a decade. Both stores will not be closing its outlets in Trostre Retail Park, a long running bone of contention for traders in Llanelli town who feel the emergence of the out-of-town retail venue has been to the detriment of the town centre.
St Elli Shopping Centre has said in a statement that attempts were made to keep both stores there, but talks were not successful. In a statement, plans were revealed to redevelop the centre moving forward, and called on Carmarthenshire Council to provide a free parking offering in order to attract shoppers back into the town again. Get stories like this straight to your inbox with our newsletters.
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A spokesman for St Elli Shopping Centre said: "We were sorry to hear about the departures of both Wilko and Sports Direct. We tried to agree terms to secure their town centre presence however we failed.
"A major reason for their move was the lack of 'free car parking' available, which they will have now at Parc Trostre and Parc Pemberton. We have spoken with the council about 'free parking' since we purchased the St Elli Centre, and we have now been told that we may have an answer in October, some 10 months later.
"Surely the council are aware that this is crippling the town centre. We are looking for tenants for the St Elli Centre, and to date we have secured two new businesses, namely the Travel House which opened last month, and another unit is set to be occupied in September.
"We have exciting plans for the redevelopment of Argos and Sports Direct buildings which will bring more people back to the town centre. This year the St Elli centre celebrates its 25th birthday and we look forward to seeing It grow from strength to strength."
A statement from Wilko read: “We bid a fond farewell to our Elli Shopping Centre store on Saturday, August 27. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank our team members past and present and to reassure customers that we’ll continue to offer everything they need from our nearby store in Parc Trostre Llanelli."
Wilko CEO, Jerome Saint-Marc added: “Our history is steeped in serving our customers and communities going back to 1930 but there’s no denying the way people shop with us and where they want to shop with us is changing. As a business we’re evolving, and this includes working with landlords for more favourable terms as well as looking at locations and store formats. We’ll continue to pull together to make our business better to secure the future of over 16,000 team members.
“We’ve done everything we can to support our affected team members including offering available positions in nearby stores.”
Carmarthenshire Council cabinet member for regeneration, leisure, culture and tourism, councillor Gareth John said: “Carmarthenshire County Council is working closely with the owners of St Elli Shopping Centre to identify ways that the authority can support the redevelopment of the shopping centre, and I am very pleased to hear that two new businesses will soon be trading from the site. We are currently undertaking a review of car parking provisions at our Murray Street Car Park, which links with the St Elli Centre and within the wider town centre, and will inform future discussions with the owners of St Elli Shopping Centre.”
Chairwoman of Ymlaen Llanelli, the town's business improvement district, Lesley Richards added: "It's disappointing for us and the staff that we are losing two large popular stores. There may be some impact on footfall, however we will continue to work with the council and CKs to improve our town."
Sports Direct has been contacted for comment.
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