Supermarket chain Iceland is to permanently close its Newport store next month, in what is yet another blow for the Island’s county town.
Just weeks after news broke that H&M was shutting up shop, it can now be revealed that Iceland will also be saying goodbye to Newport.
The store, located on South Street just a few doors down the road from where H&M stood, will close on 25th March, Island Echo is told.
It’s said that an increase in rent is partially to blame for the decision to shut up shop, with talks of dwindling in-store sales too.
The closure will leave yet another big building empty in the heart of Newport, bringing back into question what the future holds for Newport Town Centre – that was once seen as the central shopping district of the Island featuring many big brands.
The Food Warehouse, which opened at Wakes Retail Park in Newport back in November 2020, will remain open and is expected to pick up the bulk of its sister company’s home delivery customer base.
Iceland has been approached for a statement.
Way too go greedy council.bleed em all dry so zero shops Left in newport!
Council doesn’t set the rent!!
Maybe not, but council will be increasing business rates,car parking for staff etc. Haven’t used Iceland for year’s as prices to expensive now compared to Asda/Lidl etc. As for food warehouse the same,lure you in with bulk bargain in the door,but then essentials like bread,milk,eggs veg and meats etc expensive. Good choice of frozen processed foods though and free parking (at the moment).
Council doesn’t set business rates, either. Business rates are set by central government.
Hey Jen, you do know the council isn’t the landlord, don’t you? or do you think the council owns all the commercial properties in Newport?
The plan by 2030 is to create 15 minute cities / C40 cities and to get vehicles off the roads.
It’s already happening in Oxford and Canterbury.
Oh, that sounds nice! East Cowes and Cowes are both 15 minute cities already I think in Island Road documentation already?
You can get a GP, shopping, barber, pub, restaurant, exercise and get to a point from which you can travel further (bus stops, RST, Red Jet/Funnel, parking) within 15 minute of walking/cycling there.
And Cowes High St and town in general are full of people and new business moving in e.g Smoking Lobster cocktail bar or that coworking space.
Cowes High St is full of people, makes you want to stroll, chill, have a nice time. Newport High St is a massive parking space: noisy, polluted, dangerous. If you were to go on a date to spend £££, which place would you choose to show off to your girlfriend? Exactly.
sadly I do not understand, ; Show off girlfriend?’ Like what is that all about… is it like, Hey look at my new car bro !!, … or mine looks better than yours…. ha ha ha h a ha ha you should go live in USA where that crap comes from.. and stop watching crap films
You got any more details on that plan for UK? It would be nice to see which places are planning to become more of a cities for people and vote with my wallet – I’d much rather pay my council tax for a nicely attended green park nearby than a concrete parking space, haha.
A little bit of Dutch ideas from the 80s in the England of 2020s can’t hurt, happy to see other nations catch up 🙂
Well the plan will backfire, case of if something isn’t broken don’t try to fix it.
Are the council the landlords then?
What a shame ,good shop good staff
Cannot be that good if the company don’t think it worth keeping
There is only so many supermarkets you can put in Newport, Tesco is the next one and as soon as the Council allowed that others were going to shut down, this won’t be the last. Newport as a shopping area on the high street is quite simply finished, people demand online shopping here as in the rest of the Country. Times have changed, the Council are speeding up the process.
The real question is what are the Council going to do with the town centre? Housing is the obvious choice, the high street is rapidly dying, most people now use out of town developments such as Wakes and the soon to be developed St Georges park, all offered with FREE parking for now. The Council will increase other charges to make money without doubt.
Kev where is bev
It never made sense to me opening a bigger outlet down the road, it was obviously on the cards… then theres all the parking problems etc, lets kill the high st with high rent, rubbish parking and no shops yay cant wait for trip advisor reviews rating the whole island as one big ghost town
Why bother leaving your house these days to go to a shopping centre/high street. They are full of knuckle dragging mouth breathers with feral scratters in tow. Shops sell tawdry produce, you are likely to get rained on, run over or robbed. Stick a VR headset on and leave the planet.
Supermarkets have kill the island Iceland is a good shop the others sell clothes phones electrical and everything really Tesco ruined Ryde town now Newport will go the same way they should only be allowed to sell food only ,
Tourists cannot afford to shop, after paying ridiculous ferry charges.. plus what is there for tourists that they do not have around their own homes..? Made only on the Isle of Wight….. hmmmm… Ice cream, some wooden bits..ummm…. ohh coloured sand…ummmmm anything else people can buy ???
As someone who was an IOW tourist for years before finally moving here most money I’ve spent was on horse riding, sailing, restaurants, pubs and pet/cycle friendly accommodation and transport – and then less often on Osborne and Ventnor gardens, golf courses, festivals, and donkeys and monkeys <3
I don’t think tourists would go to Iceland 😉
Will the last person in Newport turn the lights out please!
Pathetic comment
This isn’t unexpected I thought this would happen as soon as the food warehouse opened.
How many more shop’s are going to go in Newport and the hole of the Isle of Wight in Newport if it wasn’t for poundland and b&m in Newport it would be dead in Newport with no shop’s to go in
There’s still plenty of small shops. I use the greengrocers on St James’ and Easyweigh on Pyle street every time I walk into town. Other than that, small DIY & gardening stuff from Hursts and fabric from the shop around the corner (whose name escapes me). I only eat a bit of meat nowadays, so I rarely visit the butcher a bit further West, down the hill towards the river & Sainsbury’s. Then it’s a stop off for coffee at Comic Cafe if I fancy a fresh waffle, or the Castle if it’s nearer lunchtime & they have their steak special on. (Right tasty, especially with a half of ale). Any PC problems, it’s a stop at Just PC. Excellent service and very good prices for repairs (and no car needed to get to Curry’s)
Can’t say I’ll miss the processed beige food, but Newport does now seem ready to close down!
Terrible news, I always go in there on a Thursday for the yellow stickers food, bang goes my Prawn Madras micro meal at the weekend!
Newport has not had a Post Office for two years – that says it all really.
With the recession people are going to shop less due to the cost of food so this comes as no surprise but it is a shame another large gaping hole of empty shops in Newport. Soon even tourists will give up coming over unless the Council does a better job of getting people to come to Newport and Ryde plus other town centres – like reducing parking charges and business rates instead of increasing them at every opportunity. People only have so much money in their pockets.
Cowes is doing very well though? I spend £200 or more each Friday night. Heck, tomorrow I’m biking there during my lunch and got spa scheduled, and keeping my eye on an art gallery for a purchase soon! They don’t have much parking space – but they do have a nice pedestrian area. Seems like voting with wallets; and research showing that foot traffic is better for business than car traffic turns out to work even in UK, go figure.
Though, I’m all-in for Newport residents to pay more in their tax if they wish to subsidise parking to lure even more cars into their city centre. I wouldn’t wish on disallowing you to go that route if you enjoy it! Myself I keep to Red Squirrel cause walking in that centre of car traffic is not fun for me.
Will the Alliance, of high taxes and secrets, still try to get city status for Newport?
£4:60 for 2 hrs parking…no thanks
How much subsidy do you need?
Corrupt Isle of Wight Council taking money from the globalist elite hiking up the prices when the price of energy is the cheapest it ever been. hiking up the rent, funny how politicians got a tasty bonuses pay rises and the people struggles the most are being terrorised by your own government its like Hitler won the war
They are closing a store in Rhyl also next month