By HELEN COMPSON

Published at 09:40, Friday, 18 June 2010

IT will take £2million to turn around the ailing Robb’s department store, said its new owners this week.

But the “rolling feast” is already under way – a team of planners and builders, dispatched by Dorset-based chain Beales, arrived in Hexham on Wednesday.

They were closely followed, on Thursday, by Beales’ chief executive Tony Brown, who announced there were new jobs in the pipeline, too.

“We have already taken on more people for the food hall – that’s six new jobs there,” he said.

“And the cosmetics counters we are installing will require new staff as well; that will probably be around 20 jobs.

“The concession houses we are bringing in will also have staff, although we don’t know how many people they will take on yet.”

New positions would also arise in Beales’ own hairdressing salon, due to open in the next month or two.

To be named Mirrors, it replaces the Reflections salon, which has now moved to its own premises on Hexham’s Eastgate.

The extensive refurbishment will take about two years to complete, working around the demands of daily and seasonal trading.

But the new store – which will be marketed as “Robb’s, part of the Beales family” from now on – will be a very different beast from the one that was dying on its feet.

While there will be a small amount of structural work, most of the £2million will be spent on new flooring, lighting and marketing displays.

The cosmetics hall and new fashion departments for women and for young people will be the first to go in.

Mr Brown said: “The cosmetics and fashions will be in place for a re-launch of the store on September 1 – we’re concentrating for now on what will provide us with the biggest bang for our buck at Christmas.

“There will be new brands for men as well, but the refit in the men’s department probably won’t be completed until next March.

“The refurbishment is going to be a bit of a rolling feast, but the work is under way.”

Beales has quietly pumped £1million of stock into the store during the past week, most of it clothing and household ware from its own in-house brands.

Just a fortnight after Beales bought the store, the banners advertising the Robb’s closing down sale have been replaced with new ones advertising a summer sale.

It kicks off today, in line with the other 11 department stores in the Beales chain.

Meanwhile, retail insolvency experts MCR, brought in to wind up the affairs of Robb’s former owner, Vergo Retail, are still trying to find buyers for 16 of the doomed chain’s 20 stores.

Vergo’s flagship store, the iconic Lewis’s of Liverpool, has already closed and Joplings, in Sunderland, is due to close on Saturday.

Published by http://www.hexhamcourant.co.uk