News: New Rotherham pizza restaurant planned

Plans are bubbling up for a new pizza restaurant inside an established retail destination in Rotherham.

Boundary Outlet (previously Boundary Mills) is located on an out of centre retail park in Catcliffe which is on the outskirts of Rotherham, close to the border with Sheffield. It opened in 2012.

The outlet currently consists of a retail store with a café for use by customers of the outlet, warehouse space and associated car parking and servicing facilities. Now bosses want to follow on from the brand's other store in Colne and utilise 5,600 sq ft of space inside the Rotherham store, changing its use from retail to restaurant use.

The substantial plans also include new canopies, a new store front and a relocation of the existing BB's coffee shop.

If approved, the existing café would move to the front of the store, to the right of the entrance, with a new pizza restaurant on the opposite side of the entrance.

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Boundary Outlet opened Bumbellini's Café & Pizzeria at its Colne store last year.

The website reads: "Enjoy a taste of Italy with our rustic homemade antipasti and woodfired pizzas offered in an informal dining manner. Bumbellini's believe in food being at the centre of any occasion and why we believe our menu is designed for everyone. Think home made dough balls with garlic & herb butter, prosciutto bruschetta, and goats cheese & caramelized red onion pizza and you start to get the idea."

As the Catcliffe site is not located within a designated town, district or local centre, a sequential test assessment has been undertaken in line with national and local planning policies. Sequential tests ensure that development is located in the most sustainable location first (usually in town centres), before other, less sustainable locations are chosen.

To address the policies, Kirkwells planning consultants for the applicants state: "Put simply, the Boundary Outlet shopping experience is to provide a retail destination that caters for longer visits and coach trips in addition to shorter visits and provides a restaurant to fulfil that function.

"The overall business model would be seriously compromised if the restaurant had to be provided in a separate location and it would not represent a viable development from the operator's perspective."

Boundary Outlet website

Images: Boundary Outlet

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News: Next Outlet to open in Rotherham

Leading UK-based retailer, Next, is set to open an outlet store in Rotherham next month.

Famous for its sales, the retailer sells collections for women, men, children and the home. Outlet stores sell all of the usual Next selection but at clearance prices.

Set to open in August, a Next Outlet will take space at the Boundary Mill store at Catcliffe retail park.

Next trades from more than 500 stores in the UK and Eire and around 200 stores in 40 countries overseas. Next already operates from a unit at Parkgate Shopping and Rotherham is home to the company's massive distribution centre in Manvers where two units at Brookfield's Park total 1.1m sq ft. The closest clearance store is at Heeley Retail Park in Sheffield.

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Boundary Mill Stores is the largest quality mill store of its kind in the UK and the expanding Lancashire-based retailer became the new occupier of the former Big W store at Catcliffe in 2012. The 130,000 sq ft store had been empty since Woolworths went into administration in 2008.

Boundary Mill Stores are owned by Libra Textiles Ltd who trade from five locations with and reported a turnover of £31.8m for the year ending January 2016, with profits of £2.1m. The stores offer branded goods at discount prices. Departments include ladieswear, menswear, homewares, gifts, books, dvds, arts and crafts and perfume and cosmetics.

The company operates a concession partnership where brands reatin ownership of the stock and Boundary Mill Stores allocates space on the basis of prospective or actual sales and receives commission for the provision of the space in the retail environment and sales support services.

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In the year to January 2106, sales for NEXT Retail increased by 1% and for NEXT Directory, the company's online and catalogue business, sales increased by 8%. Total Group sales rose by 3% to £4.1bn.

Next chief executive, Lord Wolfson, stated that this financial year "may well be the toughest we have faced since 2008" with cost pressures and impacts on consumer spending. The company still estimated that it would add around 275,000 sq ft of net trading space in 2016/17 and a further 350,000 sq ft in 2017/18.

Next website
Boundary Mills website

Images: Next

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News: Austin Reed Rotherham concession bought

The Rotherham concession of menswear chain Austin Reed is one of the few operations to stay open after the buyer decided not take the bulk of the brands' stores as part of a deal to buy the company out of administration.

Alix Partners was appointed as administrator to the Austin Reed Group on April 26, a year after the retailer entered into a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) and closed more than 30 underperforming stores.

Founded in 1900, the upmarket chain had around 70 stores with a large flagship store located on Regent Street, London. The group also owned the Viyella and Country Casuals chains of fashion stores.

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The administrators have not been able to secure a viable solution to keep the business as a whole and it is set to cease trading.

AlixPartners sold five Austin Reed concession stores operating within Boundary Mills shopping outlets to retail chain Edinburgh Woollen Mill, saving 28 jobs.

This includes the concession in the Boundary Mill outlet which took over the former Big W store at Catcliffe in 2012. The 130,000 sq ft store had been empty since Woolworths went into administration in 2008.

High Street stores, including the one at Meadowhall in Sheffield, are set to close by the end of June.

Peter Saville of administrator AlixPartners said: "We have explored all options to sell the business since our appointment and continued to trade the business with the support of the secured creditors in what is clearly an extremely challenging retail environment. Despite a significant number of interested parties coming forward it became clear as the process progressed that a viable solution which kept the business whole was not forthcoming. We have made the difficult decision to cease trading."

Edinburgh Woollen Mill also bought the Austin Reed and Country Casuals brand. The group operates retail and destination outlets and acquired 77 stores from struggling Rotherham-based retailer, Rosebys in 2008.

Edinburgh Woollen Mill website
Boundary Mill website
Images: Boundary Mill

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News: Sale on at Rotherham Boundary Mills

The property housing the successful Boundary Mill Stores in Rotherham has gone up for sale, with a guide price of £14.5m.

The largest quality mill store of its kind in the UK, the expanding Lancashire-based retailer became the new occupier of the former Big W store at Catcliffe in 2012. The 130,000 sq ft store had been empty since Woolworths went into administration in 2008.

Agents, Knight Frank have been instructed to advertise the freehold of the prominent 11 acre site as a prime open A1 retail warehouse investment. A corporate acquisition of the property is also possible.

Boundary Mill Stores are owned by Libra Textiles Ltd who trade from five locations with sales in excess of £150m. The stores offer branded goods at discount prices. Departments include ladieswear, menswear, homewares, gifts, books, dvds, arts and crafts and perfume and cosmetics.

The company operates a concession partnership where brands reatin ownership of the stock and Boundary Mill Stores allocates space on the basis of prospectives or actual sales and receives commission for the provision of the space in the retail environment and sales support services.

Investing around £5m in fitting out the Catcliffe store, the tenant terms are shown with rent at £925,000, uplifting every five years, with 25 years remaining.

The price of £14.5m represents a net initial yield of 6%.

Including over 1,000 free car spaces, the adjacent Morrisons store has been earmarked as in the path of the proposed HS2 route through to the South Yorkshire station location at Meadowhall.

Boundary Mills website
Knight Frank website

Images: Knight Frank

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News: Boundary Mills set to open Rotherham store in September

Boundary Mill Stores, the largest quality mill store of its kind in the UK, is planning to open their new outlet in Rotherham this September.

As revealed on Rothbiz in January, the expanding Lancashire-based retailer is the new owner and soon-to-be occupier of the former Big W store at Catcliffe, which has been empty since Woolworths went into administration in 2008.

The new store is expected to create over 300 jobs with recruitment underway via Jobcentre Plus

Boundary Mills already operate four large outlet stores and offer branded goods at discount prices. Departments include ladieswear, menswear, homewares, gifts, books, dvds, arts and crafts and perfume and cosmetics.

A number of concessions are also expected to open in the Rotherham store. These include Brook Taverner, Europe's largest and most successful trade supplier of stock-supported business clothing, and Pagazzi, the UK's largest, independently owned lighting and mirror retailer.

The 12,000 sq m store adjacent to Morrisons is currently undergoing a £5m refit and plans were recently submitted for new signage.

Boundary Mill Stores are owned by Libra Textiles Ltd who have enjoyed year-on-year increases in profits for the last 15 years and posted profits of of £18.7m for the year up to January 2012.

Boundary Mills website

Images: Boundary Mills

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News: Boundary Mill to open Rotherham store

Boundary Mill Stores, the largest quality mill store of its kind in the UK, is to open a new outlet in Rotherham. A move that will create over 300 new jobs.

The expanding Lancashire-based retailer is the new owner and soon-to-be occupier of the former Big W store at Catcliffe, which has been empty since Woolworths went into administration in 2008.

Boundary Mills already operate four large outlet stores and offer branded goods at discount prices. Departments include ladieswear, menswear, homewares, gifts, books, dvds, arts and crafts and perfume and cosmetics.

The 12,000 sq m store adjacent to Morrisons is to undergo a £5m refit and a planning application has recently been submitted for re-cladding the building and installing new doors and canopies.

The new store is expected to create 78 full time jobs and 277 part time jobs.

A spokesperson from Boundary Mill Stores said: "We are delighted to be coming to Rotherham with our new store which will create around 300 plus jobs.

"We now await the confirmation of our planning application prior to commencing refurbishment works."

The new operators hope that the store will open at the end of August 2012.

Boundary Mill Stores are owned by Libra Textiles Ltd who enjoyed an increase in like for like profits of 58% for the year up to January 2010. Profits before tax increased to £2.2m and expansion plans are being carried out.

It was reported that developers, Stadium Ltd bought the Catcliffe property for around £34m in 2006. Plans were approved in February for the subdivision of the store in a bid to attract new tenants but it appears that these works will not now be required.

Boundary Mill Stores website

Images: boundarymill.co.uk

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