Former Walsall cinema demolished from landscape ready for car supermarket
A former cinema which once housed film fans every week in Walsall has been almost fully torn down to make way for a car showroom.
The Showcase cinema, on Bentley Mill Way next to Junction 10 of the M6, has been demolished – with only the site's entrance remaining.
It comes after the cinema was snapped up by Trade Centre UK which plans to turn it into the largest "car supermarket" in the Midlands.
The cinema was gutted early in December with the separate cinema rooms visible, but the velvet seats and screens already gone.
Trade Centre UK has said its new site will open in Walsall this year but as of yet no firm date has been given for the official opening.
The branch will replace the current store in Wednesbury which will be redeveloped into a "central preparation centre" to support sites in the Midlands, North West and Yorkshire.
All existing retail staff are to be relocated to the new store and the company has said that it will be hiring extra staff at the Wednesbury preparation centre
Trade Centre UK is one of the fastest growing used car retailers in the country and was ranked number one independent retailer in the 2020 Car Dealer Magazine.
The Trade Centre Group was founded by Mark Bailey in 1999 and remains 100 per cent owned by the Bailey family. It operates six sites in the UK with two in Wales that operate under The Trade Centre Wales brand at Neath and Cardiff North.
There are four in England at Wednesbury, Coventry, Rochdale and one which recently opened in Rotherham, South Yorkshire.
Tim Carr, chief executive officer, said: "We are proud to grow our business once again within the West Midlands region,
"With direct frontage to the M6, there is not a better location in the UK for our brand.
"We look forward to the new store opening with excitement."
Showcase still has one multiscreen cinema in the Black Country, based in Dudley, close to Dudley Zoo on the Castlegate Leisure and Business Park.
