Bradley Stoke Vodafone store ceases trading

The Vodafone store at Bradley Stoke’s Willow Brook shopping centre has closed down, with effect from the end of business on Monday 26th February.

A Vodafone spokesperson told the Journal:

“We are always looking to expand our presence on the UK high-street. Vodafone has three shops open in Bristol and we have just finished expanding our experience store in Bristol Cribbs Causeway. The Vodafone store staff who previously worked at the Willow Brook Centre branch have been deployed to other local stores that are most convenient for them.”

‘Mall Unit 1B’ has had a chequered history since the Willow Brook Centre opened in October 2008. It remained vacant until the first tenant, Panasonic UK, began trading in December 2010. The electrical store closed down in mysterious circumstances in February 2013, only to be replaced by Phones 4u in the autumn of that year.

Phones 4u  lasted less than a year before its parent company went into administration in September 2014. The store reopened under the Vodafone banner a few months later.

Andy Wynn, Willow Brook Centre manager, commented:

“It is sad news that Vodafone have decided not to renew their lease at Willow Brook. We have started marketing the unit and have a couple of lines of enquiry already, I am confident that the unit will not be empty for long. Every shopping centre has an amount of churn. However, that churn at Willow Brook is far lower than most – we have had one of the highest occupancy rates in the south west for several years.”

This article originally appeared in the March 2018 issue of the Bradley Stoke Journal news magazine (on page 15). The magazine is delivered FREE, EVERY MONTH, to 9,500 homes in Bradley Stoke, Little Stoke and Stoke Lodge. Phone 01454 300 400 to enquire about advertising or leaflet insertion.