The remarkable revival of a Welsh shopping centre which looked dead on its feet

A thriving Welsh retail park was once a struggling farm and has been on something of a rollercoaster journey over the years. Parc Trostre in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, currently boasts more than 30 shops and businesses across its huge 450,000 square foot site and is expected to welcome a handful of new shops later this year.

It was once Trostre Fawr Farm and bordered by further farmland on one side and mines, including renowned St George's Pit, on the other. Turning farmland into a retail park was certainly a gradual thing but in the last few years the park has become so busy with people of all ages whipping around all the shops, especially in the school holidays, that it's hard to believe it was ever anything else.

The development of what is now known as Parc Trostre began in 1988 when supermarket giant Tesco decided to relocate its existing store from Vaughan Street in Llanelli to the Trostre Fawr Farm site, which was well-located just a few miles from the newly-built M4 and just a short drive from Swansea. At the time many local residents were upset by news of the relocation as much of Llanelli's town centre had been demolished in order to make room for the Tesco store to be built at Vaughan Street only for the firm to then move to Trostre.

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Nevertheless many Tesco shoppers followed the supermarket to its new site, which opened in 1989, and the supermarket is seen by many as being the catalyst to the growth and development of the wider retail park. After Tesco's relocation Halfords followed suit in the early 1990s and moved from Stepney Street in the town centre to the retail park, which was swiftly followed by the openings of new furniture store MFI, carpet store Carpetright, and DIY chain Great Mills.

McDonald's then moved to the retail park, after closing its restaurant in Llanelli town centre, and several further units opened at the retail park at the turn of the millennium including Allied Carpets, Rosebys, Sharps, and Focus. Currys was next to open in the retail park, arriving in 2006, and while some shops at the park didn't survive the 2007-08 financial crisis they were soon replaced by clothing shops and units weren't typically empty for long.

The retail park soon became so popular that more units, parking spaces, and a new restaurant had to be built while the roundabout leading into the park had to be altered to cope with the traffic. In the following years the retail park welcomed several popular high street chains including BHS, New Look, HMV, and TK Maxx to name a few.

Then, developers decided to expand further and construct retail units on land between the retail park and the new Parc y Scarlets stadium which replaced the 129-year-old Stradey Park stadium and opened in November 2008. Parc Pemberton is now home to Argos, B&M, Bensons, Budget Carpets, Currys PC World, Dreams, Dunelm, Halfords, ScS, and The Range with many customers visiting before or after their trip to Parc Trostre.

A little while after the construction of Parc Pemberton, and as Parc Trostre continued to go from strength to strength, Marks & Spencer copied Tesco and moved from Vaughan Street in Llanelli to a huge unit in the retail park in what many residents saw as a blow to the struggling town centre. While the park did see a handful of closures, including the upsetting shut-down of BHS after the clothing and homeware shop company went into administration in 2016, it saw many more openings including the long-awaited opening of Primark in 2017 which saw hundreds of people queue for hours to be some of the first to get inside the shop and grab a bargain.

Just a few years after the successful launch of Primark, though, the pandemic struck. After lockdown restrictions forced non-essential retailers and businesses to close down for weeks on end we saw several beloved high street brands begin to struggle financially and their issues were only exacerbated as people became so used to shopping online, and/or on a budget caused by a loss of income from redundancies or being furloughed by their employers, that their shopping habits began to change. Some previously multimillion-pound successful brands closed all their stores while other firms closed down some of their stores that weren't turning over enough profit or were no longer thought to benefit them.

As a result several household names at Parc Trostre closed their doors such as department store Outfit, which was home to several high street retailers which have closed down including Topshop, Topman, Burton and Miss Selfridge. Popular department store Debenhams also ceased operations and Next closed its Parc Trostre store due to "unsustainable rents" and "high levels of business rates". H&M and Animal also closed their branches at the park post-Covid due to the changing and struggling retail landscape while Millets, Poundland, and Clarks all also closed down stores there.

But even with all the closures many stores remained while others have moved in since. And while a 2022 planning application for the construction of a new Lidl supermarket and Tim Hortons coffee shop drive-thru on the edge of Parc Trostre was turned down the firms have said they are looking to appeal the decision so there's still hope the two stores could eventually open in the retail park – and they clearly have confidence in the park to want to construct new buildings and open there.

Nevertheless, that same year, Parc Trostre welcomed a new independent gift shop. The shop, named 925 Treats, is owned by husband and wife team Andrew and Gemma Cloke and sells a wide range of jewellery, handbags, accessories, cosmetics, and gifts. At the time Gemma told WalesOnline: "We are really, really excited. It's something that we have been working on for the last seven months. We've got shops in Ammanford and Carmarthen already and we had amazing support over Christmas and our Christmas trade was really encouraging which helped us make the decision to go for Trostre and finalise it. From an independent point of view we are really excited because there's never been an independent store at the retail park before so it's really exciting."

Then there was more positive news for the park when planning applications suggested Matalan would be taking on the former Debenhams unit and the plans soon came to fruition. The clothing shop has been open there for a while now and is open seven days a week. Plus, last March, TK Maxx expanded to open a large Home Sense store at Parc Trostre, shortly after HomeSense closed at Fforestfach Retail Park in Swansea.

Now, as we look at how 2024 is going to look for the retail and leisure sphere, there's further good news for Parc Trostre with four potential new openings. Back in the 1990s and 2000s the popularity of fashion accessory retailer Claire's – referred to by many by its former name Claire's Accessories – skyrocketed and the shop became a staple of high streets and retail parks across the UK and beyond. Filled to the brim with child-friendly cosmetics, jewellery, and hair accessories it was the dream shopping destination for tens of thousands of little girls while older girls loved going there to get their ears pierced in the store.

The chain, which now has more than 2,750 stores in 17 countries around the world, has had a store in Union Street in Swansea and in Merlin's Walk Shopping Centre in Carmarthen for several years and previously had a unit at Parc Trostre. Now the firm is planning to return to the retail park, filling the former O2 unit which is currently empty between Vision Express and Lakeland. An approximate timescale for how long it would take for the unit to be fitted out has not yet been shared but it's understood the chain has started to recruit for a handful of job with ads spotted online.

Another planning application to Carmarthenshire County Council suggests Poundland is looking to open a new unit in Parc Trostre at empty unit 2B between M&S and TK Maxx/HomeSense. The firm submitted an application to the council on January 23. The application is currently "in review" and awaiting a decision from the council but if approved we're likely to see Poundland open at Parc Trostre later in the year.

As well as those eagle-eyed locals have noticed toyshop chain Smyths is advertising vacancies on jobsite GlassDoor and listing Parc Trostre as the address for the shop, suggesting the chain is set to open a store at the site. "We are recruiting duty managers for our new store opening in Llanelli. Please note that this store will not open until 2024: successful candidates must be available to train in our Swansea store in the meantime," the listing adds. Plus, job site SimplyHired is recruiting for staff for Mountain Warehouse, which it claims is opening in Parc Trostre in mid-February.

So what's actually at Parc Trostre now? in alphabetical order

Shops open: 925 Treats, Asda Living, B&M, B&Q, Boots, Card Factory, EE, Everlast Fitness Club, Holland & Barrett, HomeSense, JD Sports, Lakeland, M&S, M&S Opticians, Matalan, New Look, Pets at Home, Primark, River Island, Skechers, Sports Direct, Superdrug, Tesco extra, The Perfume Shop, The Works, TK Maxx, Trespass, TUI, Vision Express, WH Smith

Shops expected to open this year: Claire's, Mountain Warehouse, Poundland, Smyths

Eateries open: Burger King, Costa Coffee, Cwtch Swansea [food van], Dinky Donuts [food van], KFC, Pizza Hut, Subway, Stuart's Artisan Bakery [food van] (and Asda Living and M&S coffee shops within their stores)

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