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Poundland and Argos to close in Sudbury town centre




Argos in Sudbury
Argos in Sudbury

Argos and Poundland are the latest shops in Sudbury to confirm they will be closing their North Street stores.

Argos closes on April 25 and moves to Sudbury Sainsbury’s in Cornard Road the day after, following the supermarket’s acquisition of Argos last year.

Poundland in Sudbury
Poundland in Sudbury

A spokeswoman for Argos said: “Argos is to open a new digital store at Sainsbury’s Sudbury supermarket. The new store will open in April and brings extra choice and convenience to customers.

“It will offer thousands of popular products for immediate pickup – 20,000 products can also be ordered to collect instore within hours and 20,000 extra products can be ordered for home delivery. There will also be an eBay collection point.”

The move will leave eight empty shops in the street.

Simon Barrett, Sudbury town and Babergh district councillor and also vice-chairman of Sudbury Chamber of Commerce, said: “That [Argos] is quite a good unit actually. Because of its size, that should attract a reasonable retailer.”

On Poundland’s closure, Mr Barrett said he was not surprised, given it has another store in the town. The store will close on March 11, but the firm’s shop on Shawlands Retail Park will remain open.

A spokesman for Poundland said it would ensure jobs were available in other stores.

Mr Barrett said: “It’s not the end of the world, it’s what happens in modern retail.”

He believes larger units in the town will quickly be reoccupied, as was the case when Mountain Warehouse and The Works moved into prime locations when they became vacant.

“Smaller retail units are sometimes empty for quite some time,” added Mr Barrett. He said it could the case for empty shops such as the former Drage and Tozer opticians, which moved to Siam Place in 2015.

“This is what happens in the commercial market, things come and go. We don’t intend to have many gaps. If they are the right size units, national chains will come in.

“It’s like everything, the market will determine what we have.”

A number of the empty units are at the top of North Street, furthest from the town centre. This includes the recently shut Café Jaqui.

Mr Barrett believes the north end of the street should be opened up to vehicles from Melford Road, to attract more people into the area. “When you have a dead end, you create a dead end. If you get access in, you could liven that end up a bit,” he said.

Mr Barrett said the town council was discussing ways to improve the town, including North Street.

Empty shops in the street include the former Art and Framing Centre, Café Jaqui, the fast food takeaway opposite Good View, premises opposite the Tile Gallery, a unit opposite Coral bookmakers and the former opticians.