Last updated at 14:15, Sunday, 18 July 2010

A LARGE Barrow discount store is shutting down after 20 years of trading – throwing its nine staff out of work.

NOTICE: A sign is posted in the window, telling customers that Hitchens in Rawlinson Street, Barrow, has closed down LINDSEY DICKINGS REF: 50008350B002

Former staff were told they were finished on Thursday teatime and that it is going into liquidation.

But owners Synergy Retail Limited of Manchester were yesterday negotiating to allow Hitchens to reopen today for a grand sale lasting up to 10 days.

A sign on window said the 10-day sale was due to start today.

It said: “Final 10 days. This store is closing forever, everything must go.”

The store is brimming with stock from clothes to furniture and electrical goods.

Regular shoppers were shocked when they arrived at the big Rawlinson Street store yesterday to see a notice saying it had shut down.

Different posters had been outside the discount store for weeks saying ‘Closing Down Sale’ but at the bottom of the posters it read “for refurbishment”.

It has closed for refurbishment and then reopened in the past.

The manager of the store, Ann Wilson, of Gleaston, said: “They just turned up on Thursday and told us they could no longer trade. We are still in shock. Everybody is upset because we feel we did a good job there, but obviously if there is no money they did not have any alternative but to close the store.

“We were led to believe the closure was for refurbishment. I would like to thank the customers for their loyalty over the years. We have had some good friends.”

The store only installed new chip and pin a week ago and staff were told new tills had also been ordered.

The building belongs to a Barrow property developer.

Staff have been told they will have to get forms from the liquidator to claim government redundancy pay.

Synergy Retail Limited, manager John Taylor, was at the store yesterday but declined to speak to the Evening Mail.

But two men working with him were busy marking down sales labels to create bigger bargains suggesting they were hoping to reopen for a sale.

The closure was complicated because two tenant stores within the building, Empire Carpets and Gas Bagz, the balloon and party accessories shop, which are tenants, are still open.

Customers were having to go up the side of the building to get to those businesses.

Hitchens has been on the site since 1989 although it has changed hands several times. It was once part of Littlewoods.

Dawn Stevens, who runs Gas Bagz with her sister, said: “It is just heartbreaking because some of the staff have been here for 20 years. It is upsetting. It’s been one of the main stores in Barrow. We absolutely love it in here.”

First published at 10:31, Saturday, 17 July 2010
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk