Bucking the retail trend for moving more business online, discount retailer The Works has appointed property consultants to help it expand its store estate across the UK.

The book, craft and stationery retailer, which has stores in Gloucester, Cheltenham and Stroud, is particularly keen for consultant GCW to help it find stores to launch across the South East, as reported by Retail Gazette.

The Works currently has 530 stores trading across the UK, and is looking to open up in prime locations or shopping centres in the South East, with store sizes ranging between 1500sq ft to 2000sq ft.

In May, The Works saw its online sales more than triple during the coronavirus lockdown, as stores remain closed and people looked for ways to keep busy at home.

Just before stores closed down for lockdown, like-for-like sales in stores and online were up by 81 per cent in the week to 22nd March, while sales were up 3.5 per cent year-on-year for the 12 months to 26th April.