Published: Thursday, 6th August, 2009 10:25am

Swedish store may replace Woolies

by Alan Bunce

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SWEDISH store Clas Ohlson plans to move into the former Woolworth's shop in Broad Street.

The retailer, which sells DIY, household, electrical and art and office supplies as well as quirky items, has applied for planning permission for new signs and sliding doors and hopes to sign a lease within the next few weeks.

There are more than 100 Clas Ohlson stores in Scandinavia and it launched in the UK at the end of last year with a shop in Croydon. One opened in Manchester's Arndale Centre in April and last week a lease was signed for a store in Kingston, Surrey.

Spokeswoman Rosie Lewis said: "The strategy is to look at a number of sites in the north west and the south east, the big shopping towns. Reading is a top shopping destination and can attract people from a great catchment area."

She could not say when the proposed store might open or give a figure for the jobs it could bring but said the Manchester store employs 60 people.

Clas Ohlson was founded in Insjön in Sweden in 1918 as a mail order business. It had only one store until 1989 but has since spread into Norway and Finland as well as the UK.

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