Next to take over former furniture shop at Essex retail park

Matthew Critchell
·2-min read
Southend Airport Retail Park
-Credit: (Image: Google Maps)


A new Next store is set to open at a south Essex airport retail park in just a number of weeks, creating more than 30 new jobs for the area. The fashion and home retailer is launching the new shop at the Southend Airport Retail Park in Rochford on July 31.

Bosses at the chain have also revealed the new store will create 36 jobs for the borough. The retail park off Rochford Road, next to Southend Airport, already offers a number of businesses including a B&M Bargains store along with Pets at Home and Argos, plus a McDonald’s drive-thru restaurant.

Next will be taking over the Oak Furniture Land shop, which has stood as a vacant unit since the store shut for good in August 2020 during the height of the Covid pandemic.

Read more: Essex city with over 300 homeless families 'facing tough times'

Read more: The seemingly normal Essex border underground station with a huge ‘swastika’ on the floor

James Newport, Lib Dem leader of Rochford Council said: “We always welcome investment in our area and it’s good to see more jobs being created as well. Next is obviously a popular store and it’s good to see the business opening a new store in the area.

“The retail park does do really well and has a good mix of businesses already and I think residents and shoppers will be very pleased and supportive with this new business. I think having jobs in the area is really important and people don’t always want a long commute to work.

“I want to really encourage more businesses to come to Rochford, not only is it a good place to work and live but it’s a great place for business too and I want to encourage firms to come and make use of our talented people and workforce in the borough.”

A spokesman for Next said: “We can confirm that the new Next store at Southend Airport Retail Park will open on Wednesday July 31 at 9am. 36 new jobs have been generated from the store opening. Works started on the shop on April 22.”

  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next

Latest stories

  • 26 Extremelyyyyyy Useful Industry Hacks That Companies Don't Want Customers To Know

    "I've flown round trip to Chicago for $30, Houston for $45, Miami for $50, etc."

  • Chinese firms eye Morocco as way to cash in on US electric vehicle subsidies

    After the United States passed new subsidies designed to boost domestic electric vehicle production and cut into Beijing’s supply chain dominance, Chinese manufacturers began investing in an unlikely place: Morocco. In the rolling hills near Tangiers and in industrial parks near the Atlantic Ocean, they have announced plans for new factories to make parts for EVs that may qualify for $7,500 credits to car buyers in the United States. Similar investments have been announced in other countries that share free trade agreements with the United States, including South Korea and Mexico.

  • 3 penny stocks I’d buy to target a £1,280 passive income

    These high-dividend penny shares could be great passive income buys for years to come. Here Royston Wild gives the lowdown on their prospects. The post 3 penny stocks I’d buy to target a £1,280 passive income appeared first on The Motley Fool UK.

  • Man's business worth millions after teaming up with former Apprentice winner

    A former DJ from near High Wycombe has become a multi-millionaire after teaming up with a former Apprentice winner.

  • Solicitor transforms redundancy into thriving legal firm

    An employment law solicitor from Bicester has bounced back from a career setback by turning his redundancy package into a fast-growing business.

  • U.S. Judge Sets Stage for NFT Securities Trial as DraftKings Lawsuit Moves Forward

    The class action suit from DraftKings buyers alleges that NFTs are investment contracts.

  • Drugmakers' appeal to end Zantac cancer lawsuits rebuffed by judge

    A Delaware judge rebuffed a request by GSK and other drugmakers to appeal a ruling allowing more than 70,000 lawsuits claiming that the heartburn drug Zantac caused cancer to go forward. The ruling by Judge Vivian Medinilla of the Delaware Superior Court means that the drugmakers, which also include Pfizer, Sanofi and Boehringer Ingelheim, will have to ask the Delaware Supreme Court directly for permission to appeal. If the state high court declines to take the appeal, it will clear the way for the Zantac lawsuits to go to trial.

  • Lawsuit: Northwestern’s law school is biased against White men in hiring

    A lawsuit filed Tuesday against Northwestern University opened a new front in the battle against affirmative action, alleging that its law school hires less-qualified people of color and women over White men for faculty positions in violation of federal anti-discrimination laws. The complaint, brought by a group called Faculty, Alumni and Students Opposed to Racial Preferences, targets Northwestern’s law school. But the allegations amount to a sweeping criticism of American universities, allegin

  • Ruling paves way for businesses and public to sue water firms over sewage

    Decision by supreme court means water companies could be sued for damage caused by dumping of human waste

  • Persimmon Homes manager earns top industry award two years in a row

    A site manager has been honoured with a significant national industry award.

  • Top bankers ordered to rein in travel and entertainment expenses

    HSBC has warned its top bankers to rein in spending on entertainment and travel as it races to slash costs.

  • How Thomson Reuters’ chief people officer sold employees on AI

    “Make training a priority, make exposure a priority, and get that hands-on use of experimentation—I think that will remove quite a bit of the hesitation.”

  • Polestar posts loss, plans steps to offset tariffs on China-made EVs

    STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Electric vehicle (EV) maker Polestar said it will have to take steps to offset hefty EU and U.S. import tariffs on its Chinese-made electric cars as it posted a first-quarter operating loss on Tuesday. The Swedish company, controlled by China's Geely, makes all its EVs in China, but its new model, the Polestar 3, will be made in the United States from the end of this summer and its Polestar 4 in South Korea from the second half of next year. Until then, it will incur provisional tariffs of 20% for the cars it brings into the European Union under a proposal by the European Commission and more than 100% for the United States.

  • German industry turns to solar in race to cut energy costs

    For months, Philip Matthias tried to convince his father to install solar panels on their company's roof in the eastern German state of Thuringia, aiming to cut electricity costs and carbon emissions at the metal products factory. Since the war in Ukraine and the sudden drop in Russia fossil fuel exports to Germany, Berlin has introduced laws to accelerate solar power expansion, part of its plan to cover 80% of the country's energy from renewables by 2030. Encouraged by a feed-in tariff providing a guaranteed price to renewable energy producers selling their power, as well as reduced solar panel costs, German companies are increasingly turning to solar to get around high energy costs.

  • Bury St Edmunds manufacturer expands with acquisition of London business

    Denny Bros Group, of Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, has added a London specialist label producer to its portfolio of companies.

  • Fast Food Chains That Have Been Sued For False Advertising

    Fast food has a wide reach, but that means some restaurants have become vulnerable to lawsuits based on allegations of false advertising shenanigans.

  • What to know about the plea deal offered Boeing in connection with 2 plane crashes

    Federal prosecutors and victims' families are waiting for Boeing to decide whether to accept a plea deal that would settle a criminal fraud charge accusing the aerospace giant of misleading regulators who approved the 737 Max jetliner before two of the planes crashed. Relatives of some of the 346 people who died in the October 2018 and March 2019 crashes are furious about the plea offer, which Justice Department prosecutors spelled out in an online meeting with the families and their lawyers on Sunday. The families want to put Boeing on trial.

  • Honig says this is why Trump’s trial won’t happen before the election

    CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig explains why the Supreme Court ruling that Donald Trump may claim immunity from criminal prosecution for some of the actions he took in the waning days of his presidency in a decision will likely further delay a trial on the federal election subversion charges pending against him.

  • TotalEnergies to exit gas field offshore South Africa in blow to country

    French oil major TotalEnergies has notified South Africa's petroleum regulator that it intends to withdraw from its 11B/12B offshore gas field but has yet to submit a formal request to do so, a source at Petroleum Agency SA said. TotalEnergies discovered the first of two large mainly gas finds in Block 11B/12B offshore the southern coast in 2019, and the withdrawal is a setback for South Africa which was banking on the gas potentially supplying an idle national gas-to-liquid refinery at Mossel Bay. Talks over the gas price have stalled for years, while TotalEnergies has invested heavily to explore neighbouring Namibia, a global exploration hotspot since TotalEnergies, Shell and Galp hit new finds.

  • ‘We’re in limbo’: Boeing takeover leaves longtime Belfast factory under threat

    Workers and politicians fear steep job cuts at Northern Ireland’s Spirit AeroSystems, which has about 3,500 workers