North East flooring store beats post-lockdown blues with £1m investment in national expansion

A North East flooring retailer has announced that it has invested more than £1m in the opening of seven new stores this month.

Flooring Superstore, headquartered in Bishop Auckland, has opened new stores in Norwich, Lincoln, Hull, Basingstoke, Orpington, Carlisle, and Reading since the lifting of lockdown restrictions on non-essential retail on 12 April.

The investment in the new stores came to more than £1m, creating 28 jobs across the country.

The company is also committing to opening 25 new stores this year, following what it said was the most profitable period in its history.

Chris Barber, chief retail officer, commented: “We have been planning the recent store launches for a while and as soon as the sector got the green-light from the government to resume trading from 12 April, we were ready to open from that date.

“We are seeing lots of first with the new stores, such as having a presence in areas such as Humberside, Cumbria, Lincolnshire and Norfolk for the first time.

“Our strategy is built on opening in areas with large conurbations and on busy retail parks with high footfall where we can make our own contribution to the local economy in these areas.

“It now means we have stores stretching from Scotland to the south coast of England and across the UK from the west of Wales to East Anglia, so there is true national coverage, and we haven’t stopped yet!”

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