Keighley-based Conway Toymaster is creating the jobs with four new stores in Yorkshire, Teesside and Lancashire, this month (August) after leases were agreed by the commercial property department of Harrogate law firm Barber Titleys.

 

The four new shops, which are all 2,000 sq ft, are at the Victoria Shopping Centre, Harrogate; The Mall, New Street, Barnsley; King William Street, Blackburn and Middlesbrough Shopping Centre.

 

Buyer with the family run business, Gordon Walker, 35, says: “Toys are a vital part of children’s pre-school learning, co-ordination and family play. We are an independent retailer offering TV-advertised toys for everything from pre-school age children to jigsaw’s for adults.

  

“Like many independent stores we thrive on high-quality products and good, friendly customer service. It can be difficult for us to get into shopping centres because we don’t pay as much as clothing shops but the economic climate has enabled us to obtain good deals so we can expand and shopping centre owners know that they need a variety offer to attract a wide customer base.   

 

“We offer a 'touch-and-feel' shopping experience which cannot be provided online and are delighted to be expanding so we can get new shops established before Christmas. Barber Titleys commercial property team has always handled our leases and we are grateful for their astute guidance.”

 

Conway Toymaster, which has 100 staff, is part of a 325-strong independent buying group of Toymaster-branded shops throughout the UK and was founded in Cavendish Street, Keighley, by Barry Walker in 1972.

 

The business traded as a single store in the town until 1999 but has expanded in the last decade opening shops in Bury, Otley, West Houghton, Blackpool, Preston, Bradford, Halifax and Huddersfield as well as outlets in larger department stores in Liverpool, Sunderland, Hexham and Sheffield.

 

Managing partner with Barber Titleys, Harrogate, Richard Davis, a commercial property lawyer, says: “Shopping centres badly need to avoid becoming interchangeable or they will kill 'tourism shopping' so we have been pleased to support the expansion of Conway Toymaster which is creating jobs in such difficult times and adding variety to a growing number of northern shopping centres.”

 

 

Barber Titleys is a long-established North Yorkshire law firm operating throughout the region and with clients throughout the country. The firm offers both private client and commercial work and has specialist strengths in town planning, construction, commercial property, corporate work, commercial disputes, family law, family trusts, inheritance planning and charitable trust services.