FOUR new units will open in Belfast's CastleCourt centre in the coming weeks, creating a combined 43 more jobs.
Miniso, the design-led retail store which offers a full range of high quality and innovative products from toys and tech to stationery, homeware, health and beauty, starts the ball rolling by opening its first Northern Ireland outlet on Friday May 5, bringing up to 15 jobs.
Poundland then moves across the CastleCourt aisle from this coming Saturday, more than doubling its previous retail space.
Now at 18,000 sq ft, its store is situated on the ground floor of CastleCourt and will create an additional 10 jobs on top of its current 15 staff.
Towards the end of May New Look returns to CastleCourt with an 8,000 sq ft fashion and accessories store in a prominent ground floor unit, creating 15 jobs.
And in June long-term tenant Exclusive Designs will take up the 8,000 sq ft unit vacated by Poundland. The furniture store, operated by Danielle Maxwell, will retain its five current staff and create three new roles as it moves to a space four times bigger than its previous outlet.
CastleCourt centre manager Leona Barr said: “After an exciting start to the year where we officially opened The Avenue cinema and brought a whole new hospitality and leisure offering to Belfast city centre, we are delighted to bring even more news of our retail offering here and create 48 new jobs in the process.”
Saad Usman, chief operating officer at Miniso UK, said: “This is our first in Northern Ireland and we believe it's in the perfect location for us to continue our expansion in the UK.”
“We're committed to getting the retail industry back on its feet, demonstrated not only by the investment into our fantastic new store, but also the creation of 10 to 15 jobs in the city.”
Gareth Howell from Wirefox, which owns CastleCourt, added: “Our ambition to make CastleCourt a top retail, leisure and hospitality destination in Belfast, and we look forward to making more announcements as the year continues.”
