Wildings

Wildings was a retail company with its main department store based in Newport, Wales, which closed in 2019 after 144 years of trading.

Wildings, Commercial Street, Newport

Background

The first Wildings shop was opened in 1874 by Alfred Wilding, a 21-year-old hatter from Newport, Shropshire.[1]

By the mid 1970s there were 14 branches of Wildings[1] across South Wales.

By the 1990s only the Newport store remained, though in 1997 Wildings acquired an existing department store business in Commerce House, Thornbury, Gloucestershire. Wildings substantially reduced the size of its Thornbury shop in 2017.[2]

The flagship Newport store had been trading from its site on Commercial Street, Newport since 1931.[3] It underwent a major £140,000 refurbishment in 2014.[3]

Wildings Group also ran the Rossiters shops in Bath and Cardiff.[3]

Closure

In October 2016 the Newport store closed two floors of its shop, discontinuing its menswear clothing and women's lingerie sections. 14 staff lost their jobs.[3]

In August 2018 the store announced it would close completely, laying off the 23 staff. A closing-down sale began in October 2018.[4]

The Newport store finally closed its doors for good on 19 January 2019.[1]

References
  1. Tomos Povey (19 January 2019). "Newport's oldest department store Wildings closes doors for good". South Wales Argus. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
  2. "14 High Street - Commerce House". Thornbury Roots. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
  3. Joshua Knapman (11 October 2016). "There's a massive downsizing sale at iconic Newport department store Wildings". Wales Online. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
  4. "Newport department store Wildings to close after 144 years". BBC News. 9 August 2018. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
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