A FORMER furniture store on Newport’s main shopping street is up for sale, an estate agent confirmed.

Maskreys in Newport closed last year after its chairman Robert Maskrey decided to wind down the business.

Yesterday, King Sturge confirmed that the store is up for grabs for £350,000.

That’s substantially less than guide price of £1.75 million for Maskrey store in Whiteladies Road, Bristol, which is on the market under offer.

The flagship store in Whitchurch Road, Cardiff, was reported to have been sold for around £1 million.

Laura Buchanan-Smith, president of Newport Chamber of Trade, said she believed the price to be very good for the store.

“It’s in good condition,” she said. “It’s got a lot of footfall along there and it will increase when Friars Walk comes.”

The Cardiff-based furniture company branched out into Newport in 1961, when it acquired Gibb and Co on Commercial Street.

Maskreys shut its doors in November after chairman Robert Maskrey decided to retire at age 70.

Mr Maskrey said last September that he feared the business would be “rationalised beyond recognition” if he sold the business, and was unable to find a successor.

Instead the chairman decided that an “orderly closure” was in the best interests of everyone involved.

The move led to a phased redundancy of the company’s 87 staff, including four in Newport.

He said that he was working hard to find alternative employment for his staff with other retailers and supplies.