Pets at Home pull out of plans to open in Skegness

The chain has today confirmed its intention to pull out of its plans for the Quora Retail Park on Burgh Road.

In a statement to the Standard, the company said the decision was made at a recent review.

It stated: “We keep our opening plans under regular review as store openings can take some time to come to fruition and both the retail environment and the property market can be volatile.

“At a recent review of our store opening plans we decided, with regret, not to progress with our plan to open a store in Skegness.

“We appreciate that this will be disappointing to customers who were looking forward to a new store and apologise for the change in our plans.

“All colleagues that have been recruited and already started training with us will continue with this before taking up alternative positions in one of our nearby stores.”

The news Pets at Home was coming to the resort was welcomed in August last year as part of the retail park including Aldi, an M&S Foodhall, B&M Home store and a Marston’s pub and restaurant, creating 200 jobs.

A statement in September last year said the new store would have a groom room and Vets4Pets and would open up a range of full time and part time jobs to the community, which people would be able to apply for at a later date.

Originally they planned to open “in early Spring” and the most recent update in March said they were aiming for May.

The store would have completed the retail park, which is now left with an empty unit.

What plans developers Quora have for the unit are not known yet.