Clogau boss reveals when new Shrewsbury store is set to open
The managing director of a jewellery firm says its new Shropshire store will open next month – creating seven jobs.
Clogau, the Welsh gold company, is opening up a new shop at the bottom of Shrewsbury's Pride Hill, a prime town-centre unit previously occupied by Thomas Cook and Hay's Travel.
Ben Roberts, managing director of Clogau, said the plan was to have the shop open in November, ready in time for Christmas.
He said that research during the past two years had shown a significant demand for the company's jewellery in Shrewsbury and the surrounding area.
He said: "Generally people think I am a little bit mad when I say I am moving into bricks and mortar but Shrewsbury kept coming up on our heat map during lockdown as a really hot venue for us.
"We know if a venue works for us, through existing stockists or through the website we can tell from the heat map that it is time to open a store and Shrewsbury showed up as a really hot area. Because of that we decided to investigate opening up a store."
Mr Roberts said he had considered another premises – also on Pride Hill, before making the final decision.
He said: "I looked at two places on Pride Hill, one further up with a first and second floor, but the first and second floor were not going to be useful as retail space so we opted for this store which has lots of visibility with the windows and will make a great jewellery store."
He added: "It won't be a traditional jewellery store because we have the ability to only sell one brand we can use part of the store to tell the story of the brand, tell about links to the royal family and the history of the family business.
"There is no shortage of jewellery companies in Shrewsbury, lots to be honest, but what you do not have is a jewellery shop selling one brand with such a great story. The ability to tell that story through a retail unit will be a first for us."
