Toys R Us Stockport to stay open

Retailer Toys R Us Stockport is to remain open as the company confirmed that Stockport is one of seven of it’s stores across the North West that will be saved from closure. 

The company has announced that Toys R Us Stockport will remain open as it gets set to close at least 26 stores in the UK as part of a proposed company voluntary arrangement (CVA), with an expected loss of around 800 jobs.

Toys R Us stores at Bolton and Manchester’s Central Retail Park are among the 26 that it has earmarked for closure next year.

Stockport is one of seven stores across the North West that will remain open along with Blackburn, Broughton, Chester, Liverpool, Preston and Warrington.

It is the larger stores on retail parks that have been identified for closure.

Steve Knights, managing director of Toys R Us UK, said:

“Our newer, smaller, more interactive stores are in the right shopping locations and are trading well, while our new website has generated significant growth in online and click-and-collect sales. But the warehouse-style stores we opened in the 1980s and 1990s, while successful in the early days, are too big and expensive to run in the current retail environment. The business has been loss-making in recent years and so we need to take strong and decisive action to accelerate the transformation.”

The closures are not expected to take place until the Spring of 2018.

Mr Knights added: 

“All of our stores across the UK remain open for business as normal through Christmas and well into the new year. Customers can also continue to shop online and there will be no changes to our returns policies or gift cards across this period.

“Like many UK retailers in today’s market environment, we need to transform our business so that we have a platform that can better meet customers’ evolving needs. The decision to propose this CVA was a difficult one, but we determined it is the best path forward to make essential changes to the business.”

In September, TOYS ‘R’ US filed for bankruptcy in the US and Canada.