The Bradley Stoke Journal

Bradley Stoke’s first-ever cycle shop is to open on Saturday (15th August) at the Willow Brook Centre.

The Giant Cycles store is a franchise of the Taiwanese company ‘Giant‘, which claims to be the largest manufacturer of bikes in the world.

The store will be operated by ZeroG Cycles of Bedminster, who have three other outlets in the Bristol area.

Doors open at 9am and there will be a draw for a Giant bike worth £500 plus opening offers and “special goings on”.

Elsewhere in the Willow Brook Centre, budget greetings card retailer Card Factory has commenced trading in unit 6b of the mall.

Two more tenants are expected to open in the coming months – Specsavers in mall unit 4 and Pets at Home in retail terrace unit 5.

Three further stores could open next month (August) at the Willow Brook Centre, Bradley Stoke’s new town centre shopping development.

The town’s first cycle shop, branded “Giant Cycles“, is set to open on Wednesday 15th August according to a source within the owning company, ZeroG.

The sizeable store, on the corner of the main mall building at the Bradley Stoke Way end of the development, was reconfigured several months ago to have additional external entrances.

In answer to reader comments made on an earlier Journal story, the company has confirmed that it will be offering a cycle repair service at the new outlet.

Elsewhere in the mall, fitting out of the new Card Factory store is well advanced. Willow Brook Centre Manager Scott Lahive says the firm is yet to confirm an opening date but it is expected to be “mid to end August”.

Fitting out of the new Specsavers store has also started and the company has already advertised for staff, including Optical Assistants and a Trainee Dispensing Optician.

Over in the new Retail Terrace, the Brantano shoe store opened for business on Wednesday 22nd July, one day later than planned due to an “overstocking issue” the previous day.

Animal superstore Pets at Home, now officially confirmed as a Willow Brook tenant after being revealed months earlier in The Journal, will occupy the remaining “under offer” unit (number 5) in the Retail Terrace. The company recently submitted a planning application for signage at the new store but fitting out is yet to commence.

Budget greetings card retailer Card Factory is to open an outlet soon at the Willow Brook Centre according to a low-key announcement on the centre’s official website.

The store guide on the website has been updated to show the new store occupying unit 6b, between the recently-opened Timpson shoe repair shop and the O2 mobile phone store.

The company, which sells greetings cards, gifts, plush items, novelties and gift wrap, has 480 stores nationwide and prides itself on delivering “quality products at value for money prices”.

A further announcement on the Willow Brook website confirms rumours (first revealed by The Journal in October 2008) that shoe retailer Brantano is to take a unit in the new Retail Terrace. Contrary to earlier indications, this will be in unit 5 rather than unit 2.

Brantano has been advertising jobs at its new Bradley Stoke store since February.  Animal superstore Pets at Home, which has also advertised vacancies, now looks likely to occupy unit 2.

Related Link: Jobs at the Willow Brook Centre (The Journal)