Focus DIY Store Sold To Supermarket Giant
Aberystwyth’s Focus DIY store has been sold to supermarket giant ASDA it can be revealed.
It is hoped that the new store will bring new and much needed jobs to the town.
However, this will be of little comfort to the 26 Focus staff members who will soon be out of work.
The beleagured DIY chain was at the centre of a dramatic rescue bid in 2009 which saw it pulled back from the brink of collapse after creditors agreed to support a huge change in rent payments made by the company.
This was required after 38 of its stores closed during the down turn, whilst it still maintained rent payments on the empty units, costing around £12 million per year.
With much restructuring going on throughout the core of the business, the company has agreed to sell off 6 of its stores to retail giant ASDA in the coming months.
However, it is not yet clear whether or not the store is to become another supermarket, or one of ASDA’s flagship homestores known as ASDA Living.
And although the immediatre future looks bleak for those Focus employees, at least its departure is not leaving an empty void which is not likely to be filled for the forseeable future like many empty stores.
Hello any idear what ASDA are going to be doing with the old FOCUS store?
are they keeping it an DIY Store? or Changing it to an FoodStore?
Maybe this silly council will relax the no more food stores rule and allow Asda to open a food store. If not they risk another empty unit standing empty for many years, just like MFI. Maybe Morrisons are paying backhanders to stop any more food stores opening?
I work at focus diy aber and to be honest not even we know the full details, possibly as negotiations are still ongoing…