Havant and Waterlooville town centres to lose well-established shops

PamPurredPets has been trading in Havant and Waterlooville town centres for two decades.

But both large outlets, in North Street and London Road, are to close after Pets Corner bought the entire shareholding as the firm seeks to continue to expand its number of stores across the country.

PamPurredPets also has shops in Fratton, Cosham, Gosport, Chichester and Petersfield and these will all remain open and rebranded under the Pets Corner name.

Ray Cobbett, from Havant Friends of the Earth, said it was a blow to Havant and Waterlooville town centres to lose the shops.

He said: ‘This well-established business is having a closing down sale which narrows down providers of pet products now to one in Havant.

‘I’ve since discovered they’ve been trading for about 15 years in what used to be the town’s bike and toy shop.

‘I gather just two of the chains, Waterlooville and Havant, are being sold off because of poor trading – another example of a useful town centre business being marginalised by edge-of-town competitors.’

The Havant shop and its staff will be moving to the existing Pets Corner at the Wyevale Garden Centre, in Bartons Road, Havant.

The Waterlooville store will be closing.

Dean Richmond, managing director at Pets Corner, said: ‘We have offered all the staff at the Havant and Waterlooville stores a position in an alternative PamPurredPets or Pets Corner store in the area, even if this causes us to be overstaffed at those stores.

‘I have committed personally to them that if they want a job, there is a job there for them.

‘As an alternative option, we have offered a minimum of three months’ voluntary redundancy to any staff that feel that this would be more suitable for them.

‘It is my understanding that all the staff at Havant 
and Waterlooville intend to stay with us, which is great news.

‘PampurredPets has a number of loss-making stores that has impacted on investment in the more successful stores.’