Staffordshire-based charity identifies towns and cities for future shops
A national charity, which has its headquarters in Cannock, has launched a drive to expand its retail presence across the Midlands and the North to enable it to support thousands more disabled children through a range of initiatives.
Newlife – the Charity for Disabled Children raises vital funds for its charity services by selling donated stock to provide disabled and terminally ill children with the equipment they need.
Now the charity, which was founded 30 years ago, has jointly instructed commercial property consultancy Johnson Fellows, based in Birmingham, and Andy Guest & Co to buy a number of new stores.
The property consultancies have also been appointed to advise on Newlife’s lease advisory work including rent reviews, lease renewals and break options, and lease regears.
Newlife currently trades from 10 stores across the UK and operates two distribution centres. It has an annual rent roll of £630,000 and had an income of approximately £14 million for 2021-2022.
Newlife is seeking large stores of 8,000 to 10,000 sq ft sales and smaller stores of 5,000 to 8,000 sq ft sales areas including in Telford, Stafford, Walsall and Wolverhampton.
Burton upon Trent, Chesterfield, Coventry, Derby, Grimsby, Lincoln, Mansfield, Northampton, Peterborough, Stoke, Tamworth, Gateshead, Hartlepool and Sunderland are also on its target list
The charity would also consider Blackburn, Bradford, Burnley, Bury, Crewe, Doncaster, Doncaster, Wheatley, Huddersfield, Hull, Macclesfield, Preston, Rochdale, Rotherham, Parkgate, St Helens, Stockport, Warrington, Wigan and Wirral.
Fiona Robinson, chief executive of Newlife, said: “This is an exciting time of growth across our retail operation. We look forward to being able to extend our store portfolio in order to help more disabled children across the UK.”
Nick Wint, retail and lease advisory partner at Johnson Fellows, said: “We are excited to be working alongside Newlife as it seeks to expand its retail presence in the Midlands and the north of England. Our team will help to locate suitable sites while also providing important advice on the charity’s existing portfolio.”
Andy Guest, of Andy Guest & Co, said: “Newlife will provide a fresh, fashion driven, retail fascia which will be new to many of the target locations. I have no doubt that the great value offered will prove popular with shoppers and drive footfall in the retail schemes selected. Added to that is the excellent objective of the charity, to raise funds for disabled children. It is a tremendous project to be involved with and we hope to be rolling out the first new stores before too long.”
Newlife partners with hundreds of the UK’s leading retailers including Ted Baker, River Island and Primark. It sells brand new stock donated by retail and high street partners, which is then de-labelled and discounted, creating a unique route to market for products that appeals to a broad customer demographic.
Alongside providing, the charity also campaigns at national level to improve the lives of disabled and terminally ill children and their families and provides a nurse-led helpline to provide support to both parents and health professionals.
