THE Cwmbran Centre has finally announced the official opening date of the new Dunelm store.

The discount home retailer will be open from Tuesday, October 31 and will provide customers with all of the products and services they are used to.

This site will be Dunelm’s second in Gwent, joining the one already on Spytty Road in Newport. There are also other sites across Wales, including in Cardiff, Swansea, Bridgend, Carmarthen and Bangor.

Now owned by property and investment company LCP, the shop signed a ten-year lease for the site.

Alex Williams, of LCP, said: “We know from the regular customer feedback we carry out that the Dunelm announcement will be welcomed by shoppers.”

“Attracting Dunelm to the centre is a huge coup and we’re absolutely thrilled it has committed to opening here. We are looking forward to it opening later this year.”

They will be taking up residence in the former Marks and Spencer’s building at 5 South Walk, in the Cwmbran Centre. This will be the first permanent tenant for the building since 2019.

Dunelm have created a Facebook group specifically for the store, called Dunelm Cwmbran Community Support, to provide customers with easier access to important information such as opening times and special offers.

Will Thomas, partner at KLM Real Estate, which jointly lease the scheme for LCP with EJ Hales, said: “This is a major letting for the town centre and is the first of several key transformational deals we are working on.”

Securing Dunelm is seen as a massive statement by the Cwmbran Centre, with Torfaen County Borough Council aiming to significantly increase footfall in the shopping centre. In the last year, there was an 8 per cent increase in footfall, up 1.5 million to 19.75 million.

The site had temporarily been occupied by One Below, but this company have now moved location to 2-4 Monmouth Walk, also in the Cwmbran Centre.