200 JOBS TO BE CREATED AT NEXT’S FOSSE PARK HOME STORE
RETAILER REVEALS OPENING DATE AND 100 CALL CENTRE STAFF ALSO NEEDED
NEXT has revealed the opening date for its new Home store and announced it will employ up to 200 staff there.
The Enderby-headquartered chain said the new furnishings store will be open in time for Easter and will complement an existing clothes and accessories shop already established in Fosse Park.
Next is also looking for another 100 call centre staff to work across the Midlands.
Although the retailer took a big hit during the lockdown, latest figures show it was not as bad as first feared.
Online sales continued to do well even while its stores were shut.
The new store details emerged after Next chief executive Lord Simon Wolfson said the business was no longer planning a beauty hall in Leicester’s Highcross.
It had planned to take the main floor of a Debenhams department store which has not reopened post-lockdown.
The plan for a Leicester branch was seen as a shot in the arm for the city centre after Debenhams confirmed in May it was closing the Highcross store – which only had a big revamp a couple of years ago – and laying off hundreds of staff at its national head office.
Debenhams has suffered a difficult few years, falling into administration for the second time in a year and suffering the huge economic consequences of the UK lockdown.
Coincidentally, Debenhams had been planning a new store in the £168 million Fosse Park extension, which is nearing completion on the former Everards brewery site. Everards is building a new complex over the road.
The Perfume Shop, Soho Coffee and Costa Coffee are opening units at the 140,000 sq ft extension to Fosse Park shopping centre, being built next to junction 21 of the M1 at Leicester.
They will join Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group, which is planning an upmarket mega-store with a wide area dedicated to its Flannels brand and an e-sports gaming arena.
A spokesman for Next said: “The Fosse Park Next store will be open in time for Easter 2021 and it will employ about 200 local people.
“We’re very excited about opening our new Fosse Park store before Easter next year, with staff recruitment for it beginning in early 2021.
“Not only will Next be recruiting for its new Fosse Park store, but it is (and also has been) recruiting for its Leicester-based call centres, as well.
“Next recently recruited around 150 extra people in the Midlands (for its call centres) and is actively trying to recruit another 100 – so this is nearly a 20 per cent increase on before.
“With the new store opening, it’s definitely a good news story as far as jobs go.”
Next will be recruiting for its new Fosse Park store, and its Leicesterbased call centres
Next spokesman