Wolverhampton's Beatties store at risk of closure again

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Aug 2, 2019

A department store in Wolverhampton that was saved from closure in October last year, when Sports Direct acquired House of Fraser, has now been put up for sale.

The 142-year-old Beatties flagship store faced shutting up shop after the brand’s parent owner House of Fraser fell into administration last year.

When the retailer was acquired out of administration by Sports Direct, Mike Asley pledged to keep the store open, saving about 280 jobs from redundancy.

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But the future of the Beatties flagship store has been thrown into uncertainty again, as its landlord, a Danish consortium, has put the property up for sale.

The owner is looking to offload the historic building for just £3 million; a striking low asking price which shows how much its value has plummeted over the past decade. The Danish consortium bought the property for £47 million in 2006.

Sports Direct continues to run the store under its House of Fraser subsidiary, and it had plans to open a sports department in the lower ground floor. Last year, Sports Direct secured an agreement to pay a nominal rent of just £1 as part of the deal to save Beatties.

According to the Express & Star, there are several parties interested in buying the building, including property developers and Wolverhampton Council.