Toys are back in town at Beatties

Bears, Barbies and board games were back at Beatties today as staff put the finishing touches to the reinstated toy department.

A total of 3,000 toys are on the shelves ready for the grand reopening tomorrow at 9am.

It has taken workers three weeks to create Toy Town, which takes up 4,000 sq ft of space in a new location on the ground floor.

Beatties' former toy department in the basement was controversially scrapped by new owners House of Fraser two years ago.

Sales manager Scott Hancock, who has worked for the department store for 14 years, said: "For the past seven days, we have been sorting through the 3,000 toys, shelving and merchandising them.

"Four members of staff will work on the toys but that will increase over the festive period.

"Everyone is buzzing at the moment, both the customers and the staff.

Pleased

"Everyone is really pleased to see the toys return and this will bring families back to Beatties and back to Wolverhampton."

The new department includes LEGO displays for children to play with and Mr Hancock has already tipped the Ben 10 range of toys to be the must-have top seller this Christmas.

Toy Town will be open from 9am tomorrow but an official opening will take place at midday with a visit from Batman and prize draws.

Beatties in Dudley lost its toy department at the same time as its Wolverhampton counterpart but there are no plans to reinstate the toys in the Dudley store.

House of Fraser acquired Beatties in a £69 million deal in August 2005. Since then, the Wolverhampton store has also lost its waitress service and art gallery.

Beatties manager Paul Sutton, who famously campaigned to save the old toy department in the basement, said its reopening was wonderful news for both the store and Wolverhampton.