Big boys toys store Menkind has re-opened in Swansea’s busy Quadrant Centre.
It’s a welcome return to the Centre for the shop which closed last year and fans should have no problem finding it – it’s in the former Disney unit, next door to its former home.
With last week’s announcement of the opening of The Fragrance Shop it leaves just three empty units at the Centre with management hopeful that these could be filled before Christmas.
The new Menkind store has seven new staff which along with the five taken on by The Fragrance Shop means a total of 12 within a week.
Menkind Manager Laura Collins, from Cockett, said: “We are hopeful things will go well and that we will be able to take on more staff before Christmas.
“We had a Menkind in the Centre before and it was only intended to be a temporary store but it stayed open for quite a while and we hope this will be even more successful.
“We will stock gadgets and gifts ranging from pocket money items to quite high end expensive gizmos like watches that connect with your smart phone and everything in between, from things that are a bit of fun to really useful things for the garden and elsewhere.”
Laura, 32, used to work at British Home Stores, where she was operations and commercial manager, and River Island and she said: “I have plenty of experience in retail but I wanted to do something different, something that wasn’t clothing.
“This is my first appointment as a store manager so it’s a progression and the next step up the career ladder for me.”
Menkind has a strong link with Everyman, the prostate and testicular cancer charity, and Laura hopes to get behind that in the Quadrant Centre store.
She added: “I’m a keen baker and I avidly watch The Great British Bakeoff on TV. I will be trying out some of their recipes and I’m hoping to do some baking for charity here at the store.”
Ian Kirkpatrick, Manager of the Quadrant Shopping Centre, said: “This is more good news and means that there are just three empty units and I know there is strong interest in all three with more openings imminent.
“It’s great to have Menkind back and I’m sure they will do well here and it does seem that we’re headed in the right direction.
“Only last week The Fragrance Shop opened and I’m hopeful that the Centre will be full well before Christmas.”
Monthly footfall at the Centre is over 1 million and its 37 stores employ more than 1500 people making it one of the single biggest contributors to the city’s economy.
Each year its tills ring up more than £800 million in sales and, according to managers at the Centre, its units never stay empty for long.
Ian Kirkpatrick added: “The Quadrant is a successful centre because it’s so well situated and has such a good range of shops.
“I estimate 80 to 90 per cent of the people who go shopping in the city pass through the Quadrant and the tenants recognise this which makes my job easier but we never have units empty for long – if one leaves the space is soon filled.”
Chris Thomas, joint leasing agent of Bristol-based independent retail property consultants Macarthur Wilson, said: “The Quadrant has been pretty resilient. It’s got good footfall and a good mix of tenants.
“The Centre is well-established, it’s got major retailers, good parking and it’s covered.”
