By Ian Mean, Business West Gloucestershire director
Six years on and with an ongoing investment approaching £30 million, Stroud’s Five Valleys Shopping Centre is in good health.
When I visited the centre last week, I felt a tangible enthusiasm from a growing number of traders.
Nationally, retail figures from the Office of National Statistics(ONS) are showing a slight increase in sales and Stroud Valley’s traders are evidence of this.
Here in Stroud, Mark Dransfield, owner of the centre, is all about growth and has a vision to succeed after six years of hard work.
Readers may remember that Five Valleys was previously a run down excuse for a shopping centre when Mark, a blunt Yorkshire developer, took a big punt and bought it.
That hard work is now paying off and last week, Pandora, the world’s largest jewellery brand opened its first ever concession at the centre’s Sandersons Department Store.
Mark introduced me to new retailers like jewellers Surya Chamak. I saw how the Artisan Baker has developed their business with investment to expand from Dransfield Properties.
Mark told me: ”We will continue to invest in Stroud. If the county council and the district council were willing, we could almost create a unique town here with individual restaurants.
“I have been absolutely obsessed with this centre and the challenges we have here have been great.”
One of those big challenges is that the pavements surrounding the centre just do not match the standard Mark Dransfield expects for his investment.
And I have to agree with him. When I visited there was rainwater flowing into the centre because of inadequate drainage and the pavement was very poor.
Surely, after investing £30 million into Stroud’s town centre, the district council, county council and Severn Trent need to sort out the pavement and the drainage?
Stroud is lucky to have an enthusiastic partner like Mark Dransfield.
