Dunelm is to take more than 18,000 square feet of The Springs out of town retail and leisure centre near Leeds for its first new smaller format store, which will also be its first paperless receipt store in a bid to change customer habits and further promote a sustainable business.
Steve Barton, Director of Property at Dunelm, said, “We chose The Springs due to its high-quality environment, and great transport and infrastructure links. It is an ideal scheme for us to launch our new format store that is around half the size of our standard superstore.”
Dunelm was founded in 1979 as a Leicester market stall business selling ready-made curtains and has been making Made to Measure curtains and blinds in Leicestershire for more than 20 years. Since opening the first Dunelm store in Leicester in 1984, the company has expanded across the country making it the UK’s largest homewares retailer with over 175 stores and employing over 9000 colleagues nationwide. The new store will open tomorrow.
The Springs is a 350,000 sq ft shopping and leisure attraction located at the heart of Thorpe Park Leeds at Junction 46 of the M1.
Because of its unique and highly modern environment, The Springs has been used as a springboard for new concepts by other operators. These include the UK’s first purpose designed ODEON Luxe cinema, the joint venture between Next and Gino D’Acampo, a new concept store for The Range, Vitruvian dental practice and the recently opened Elan Laser Clinic as its first venture in the UK.