Freehold Traditional Department Store For Sale

Business description

This historical and well established department store has been part of the fabric of Porthmadog for over 125 years and in that time it has developed into a truly wonderful destination store for the town. With its high profile location and distinctive Victorian appearance the business draws in visitors from near and afar with many customers travelling significant distance to visit such is the quality of the offering. The owners, past and present have spent a great deal of time effort and resource on the design of this award-winning retail store to ensure that shopping is a thoroughly enjoyable leisure experience.
Situated over 3 floors the presentation of the very wide range of stock is excellent. The store comprises the following layout:

Ground Floor - Here you will find a vast selection of items in the Cookshop, Housewares and Outdoor Living departments.

Among the leading brands stocked are: Denby, Brabantia, Addis, Meyer Prestige, T & G Woodware, Optima and Antler.

First Floor- On the first floor you will find an array of Gifts, Photograph Frames, Greetings Cards, Stationery and Games.

Property information

Property:

Freehold

Location:

The premises are ideally located on the main thoroughfare in the town and are highly visible from the road. The building itself is Victorian, full of character and is in an excellent state of repair. There is staff parking to the rear of the building and plenty of free parking close by. Total retail space is circa 12,000 square feet evenly split over 3 floors (with small office areas on the top floor). There is also further attic space that could be utilised if need be for storage. In addition to this there is a warehouse to the rear of the building providing circa 2000 square feet of storage space and a customer pick up point.

Freehold value is circa £1.6Million. Rates are circa £16,500 p.a. The vendor would consider leasing the premises should a buyer not wish to purchase the freehold, subject to negotiation

Other information

Expansion potential:

Such is reputation this business enjoys there is no reason why the “brand” could not be developed further with other outlets further afield. Furthermore there is no reason why the product range could not be expanded to cater for more areas of the traditional department store sector.

The business has not really addressed e-commerce opportunities to date. This is a massive growth opportunity as is the proper development of the business’s customer database (circa 200,000 customers)

The town this business serves is growing and also enjoys large numbers of visitors each year. A new railway line is due to open shortly that will only increase current footfall

Competition / Market:

The business advertises in the local newspaper and has in the past undertaken some radio advertising. It also has a basic informative website and a leaflet. This is an area where further activity would increase sales and revenues

Support & training:

The current owners would be happy to provide full training and support at handover.

Trading hours:

Monday – Saturday: 0930-1730Sunday: 1000-1600