Lidl and Halfords gear up to open at Reading retail park

The German supermarket giant currently has four stores in the Reading area, in Oxford Road, Bath Road, Basingstoke Road and Headley Road in Woodley.

Now Lidl is gearing up to open a fifth store at the Reading Retail Park, which is less than a 10-minute drive from the existing one in Oxford Road.

The project involves merging the existing Halfords store with the defunct Carpet Right unit at the retail park.

Prior to the merger Halfords will relocate on-site to the former Wren Kitchens unit, which is currently undergoing conversion works to allow the DIY store to occupy it.

Update on major changes coming to busy Reading retail park

The latest news in planning terms is that Halfords has won approval for its signage details.

Signs state Halfords fits car parts and repairs bikes in black, orange, blue and white branding.

Meanwhile a plan has been approved to allow four trees to be planted to the rear of the Lidl within a new staff car park with 76 spaces.

Both plans were judged to be acceptable and approved by Reading Borough Council's planning department last week.

You can view the approved applications by typing the following reference PL/24/1208 for the Halfords branding and PL/24/1446 for the trees at Lidl into the council's planning portal.

The news comes as Lidl announced intentions to open six stores in Berkshire back in 2021.

At the time, the groceries giant stated that is eyeing up Tilehurst, Caversham, Woodley, Winnersh, Newbury and Thatcham as locations for new supermarkets.

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Retail park locations are seeing a rebound since the coronavirus pandemic.

In an interview last year, Fiona Brownfoot, a director of retail, restaurant and leisure at commercial property marketers Hicks Baker explained the eventual loss of retail park sites and convenient attractions explain the rebound.

Retail property expert explains success of Reading shopping parks

She said: “Now you’ve got retail parks where you have smaller outlets as part of the scheme instead of just the big boxes that you used to have and you have drive-thrus and other things to attract people to go down there.

"So slight diversification that they've been experiencing as well and a reduction in stock should ensure that all of the retail parks should remain pretty much fully occupied because we're losing space."

Planned developments have put retail parks at risk. The Reading Station Shopping Park is due to be redeveloped after plans for 1,000 flats and new commercial space were approved by the previous Conservative government, and the Forbury Retail Park is subject to a plan for 820 homes.