In an update on progress for recent retail changes, Mark Dransfield, the chairman of Dransfield Properties Ltd, has set January 23rd as the date when the first tills will blip at a new Tesco store in Stroud.

The former Halfords retail outlet, as a key new element  of Dransfield's Five Valleys Shopping Centre on Merrywalks, will see a final fit-out to the 5,249sq ft area from December 19th and be open five weeks later.

Pointing out the employent benefit of the change, Mr Dransfield said that Tesco's 15-year commitment, which signals a £1m investment, will bring 20 new jobs to the town - while ex-occupants Halfords employed a team of nine.

The Tesco store will sit beneath the shopping centre's multi-storey car park and be adjacent to the town's Vue Cinema, and has been welcomed by the town's Chamber of Trade and Commerce as a key boost for work to regenerate the town centre .

Mr Dransfield has also gone on record to share his sadness at the loss of the Wilko store from the retail centres Unit B, stating that the brand had been a client for 30 years and he was "very sad" to see them go. 

However, he added that "change is good" and that two major retailers are now taking up the vacated space, which has been broken into two units. They would be moving in immediately after Christmas, he added, and an announcement on the brands and job benefits would be made imminently.

Five Valleys shopping centre was purchased by Dransfield Properties in 2018 and has so far seen close to £30m of investment improving the main shopping centre malls, creating a high-quality indoor food market and consolidating new medical facilities. The regeneration project has helped safeguard and create just over 400 jobs.

● In August, Punchline-Gloucester.com reported on the approaching demise of Wilko after the retailer went into administration.