Home Bargains plans to open second store in Inverness in former Wickes DIY site; news follows recent Highland expansion at the likes of Dingwall
Home Bargains is looking to open a second store in Inverness and create up to 60 new jobs - and has set its sights on a large vacant warehouse in the Longman.
An application has been lodged with Highland Council to alter conditions attached to the use of the former Wickes DIY store in Henderson Road.
If approved, the site will be able to used for a mix of non-food retail and up to 30 per cent of the floorspace for food sales.
The 60 new jobs would also be a big boost for the city - and would be more than double the number thought to have been employed when Wickes was operational at the site.
A supporting statement lodged by application agents Savills has confirmed Home Bargains' interest in the site, and that the business intends to still keep its Rose Street Retail Park store running once the new one is operational as well - despite both sites being close together.
The company explained that it considers Inverness as large enough to be a "dual store city" and that the new site would also be able to run an outdoor DIY project area and garden centre - something the existing one in Rose Street does not have.
Although the Rose Street store’s future appears to be safe, it is not known what implications the new shop will have for Home Bargains’ recent plans for a multi-million pound site in Stratton off Barn Church Road, or whether the comment about a “dual store city” is only in reference to the city centre or encapsulates the wider Inverness conurbation area to the east of the A9.
In a further interesting development, shortly after we reached out to Home Bargains for more detail about the Wickes proposal, we received a response to say “we have nobody available for comment” and the planning application became unavailable on the Highland Council web portal shortly after this news story was published. Clicking on the link now takes people to a council web page stating “This application is no longer available for viewing. It may have been removed or restricted from public viewing.”
However, before the documents were taken down, Savills' supporting statement said: "There is a Home Bargains located within Inverness city centre at Rose Street who intend to continue their operations within this location.
"The existing city centre store does not allow for an outdoor projects area / garden centre which demonstrates the requirement for a further unit to be provided within the Inverness area.
"Home Bargains envisage Inverness as a ‘dual store city’ given the ongoing success of their existing operations within the area.
"The new condition to allow Home Bargains to operate from the existing premises would not likely materially compete with existing retail operators within Inverness city centre.
"It follows that the proposed development will not materially alter either the number of visitors to the centre, or their reasons to visit them. Residents will continue to visit the centre for their wider retail, service, leisure and associated facilities and its wider cultural and tourist function, which would not be impacted upon at all by the proposed development."
The new store in the former Wickes will also be larger than the Rose Street site, with Savills signalling that Home Bargains intends to use more than 2700sqm of vacant floor space and an additional 800sqm outside for its garden centre and outdoor projects area.
The statement added: "It is estimated that the previous Wickes operation provides approximately 27 full-time equivalent (FTE) employment positions.
"As the previous operator has now vacated the site, the employment opportunities are lost from the site and the nearest Wickes stores are in Perth and Dundee.
"The proposal will provide approximately 60 FTE thereby not only retaining the employment on the site, but also materially increasing it."
If the application is approved, it is not known how soon the site would become operational. No-one was available for comment at Home Bargains.
The retail chain has been expanding its Highland operations in recent months, having just opened a brand new store in Dingwall.
