Chelmsford Mattressman bedding store to shut to hunt for ‘better locations’

An Essex Mattressman chain is expected to close at the end of this month. The bedding retailer announced the Chelmsford outlet, on Springfield Road, will close after the trading day on May 31 after seven years in the city centre.

The British mattress supplier sells a range of products from well-known bedding and mattress brands. Including the Chelmsford branch, there are 11 stores nationwide.

The imminent closure means Colchester will be the closest and only branch in Essex. Brand Marketing Manager Louis Kerry revealed the move is part of a “strategic change” for the brand and all staff members have been relocated to different surrounding stores.

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He told EssexLive: “We had some stores which don’t fit into our vision as much going forward and Chelmsford does not really fit into our vision the store itself, not necessarily the area. We definitely want to be a presence in the area, going forward, but right now, the store doesn’t really fit our vision.”

The brand’s vision is supposedly wanting to have better-looking stores in better key areas, according to Mr Kerry, which mentioned the Norwich chain. The East Anglian outlet had a £50,000 refurbishment last year.

That said, Louis shared that the current Chelmsford store does not emphasise this logistically because it is behind a supermarket, despite the shop performing well. But the closure still would not make it easier on shoppers and residents in the city centre.

“I think they will be sad to see a retail leave because of the state of the economy on the high street at the moment. I’d like to hope we have left such a good place impression on our customers.

“I hope the support is still there but I understand any upset for their own High Street.” Reminiscing about the history of the store, he revealed: “The memorable thing about the store was the customers and all the friendly people we got to meet.

“All the characters there are from the high street. The main thing I staff loved was going to interact with the local community and we’ll be sad, not to be part of it for now.” But there is hope for future plans in Essex as the Chelmsford chain could be relocated to another place in the area or in the county as well as other changes could be made to the Colchester store.

“We are always on the lookout for the right place in the right location, especially now with our new vision. I’m so we don’t want to close any more stores, we hope we don’t. But again, never say never.

But we are on the lookout to open more stores rather than close stores,” Louis explained. The doors will still be open for the following two weeks to assist customers before the branch completes the moving-out process.

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