The Food Warehouse could soon be opening in Newport if planning permission is granted by the Isle of Wight Council.
Permission is being sought to change the use of the former PC World premises on Wakes Retail Park to include the sale of food items.
At present, the unit can only be used to sell bulky goods such as furniture, floor coverings, household textiles and white goods. However, owners New River Retail are now looking to change this to permit food to be sold on site, as well as 30% non-bulky comparison goods.
The premises has remained empty since July 2017 when PC World merged with Currys just 2 doors down. Over the past 2-and-a-half years the unit has been continuously advertised but no tenant has been forthcoming.
New River Retail is keen to secure a tenant to enable the ongoing use for the site. The planning application has been made to ‘broaden the goods that can be sold from the site so that it will appeal to a wider range of occupants/tenants’. It is said that initial market research has shown that there is interest from food retail brands.
Documents contained within the planning application confirm that the proposed occupant is The Food Warehouse – part of the Iceland chain. It’s said that discussions with The Food Warehouse have progressed and should this planning application be granted they will open their first Isle of Wight store in Newport.
The Food Warehouse (TFW) has 120 stores nationally. The stores comprise of chilled and frozen products, together with fresh produce, branded grocery lines and a range of beverages and alcoholic drinks. Fundamentally, the retail offer also includes ‘big produce packs’ which enables customers to buy some products in bulk and ‘Case Saver’ deals aimed at families who want to stock up on frozen food with infrequent, large bulk shops.
If permission is granted and The Food Warehouse opens around 20-25 jobs are expected to be created.
More traffic chaos in Nippert
Not enough parking for a food store in this location really 🙁
Absolutely right Pete. Anyone wishing to visit PetsAtHome, Currys, Dunelm etc etc will struggle to find parking
We are becoming an Island made up of supermarkets and take away’s…Grrrrrr.
people have to eat janet!
I don’t want to eat Janet.
Don’t eat Janet, she’s nice
More food shops we can eat only so much!
Not enough parking by any stretch of the imagination, trying to negotiate that area in the rush hour especially evenings is already a nightmare. You cannot keep expanding Newport with more and more retail outlets around the centre of town, just look in the high street full of empty units! The council are obsessed with expansion for housing and retail, just stop and think about the road systems around the Newport area it can’t cope now, you are letting other towns on the Island fall into retail desserts whilst attracting more and more people to Newport. Has common sense been removed?
122 spaces in total inc.11 disabled. for all 3 shops. co-op in ryde has 120 outside and maybe 60 or so inside.I’m with you nowhere enough space. I think it should have the same size car-park as Morrisons Newport or Lake.
Better to fill it….than leave it empty…! 🙂
Well done Pete the only one to talk sense island should be called isle of whingers it would bring in jobs whingers SHUT UP PLEASE
It doesn’t bring in jobs, as other retailers will loose trade so either lay off staff or not re-employ when someone leaves
It won’t bring in jobs in the long term when other food outlets are forced to downsize their stores because of reduced footfall..We shall just suffer from reduced ranges as stores get rid of poorer selling items.
Too many people, end tax credits, pay decent wages instead, then people would work a full week instead of twenty hours so they can then claim the rest in tax credit payments, subsidised rent and council tax.
They are adding to the future stress on housing, landfill, and congestion, pollution, loss of countryside, etc.
Certain the poor have a right to have a child or two, but after two, no extras should be given as then it becomes selfish, not ‘need’.
More competition more jobs is that really a bad thing
Why do we need another food outlet? Anyhow there is insufficient parking for a food store.
Instead of keep bloody moaning all the time look at the positives….it opens up a store gives people jobs maybe cheaper shopping….there’s always chaos in Newport with traffic so another shop isn’t going to make any odds and I bet u moans out there will be the 1st 1s in there getting your shopping
It’s an established fact that the consumer needs of a given populus can only support so much trade. Above that, all other is surplus to requirements and risks going out of business due to competition. The relatively small population of the Island has only so much spending power. Another outlet of this type will simply put others out of business. Not rocket science.
What would be great there is a specialist music shop selling guitars, amps, keyboards, drums, violins, etc.
Personally if I was Iceland I would rather take one of the proposed retail units planned for st Georges football ground… more parking, easier access etc etc.
I see no-one, other than Island Roads, has submitted any comments, either for or against this, on the Isle of Wight planning website!!