Express & Star

Wolverhampton's new Starbucks branch taking shape as coffee chain makes city centre return

A Starbucks sign has been installed as work to convert a vacant former phone store in Wolverhampton city centre gets under way.

Published
The Starbucks sign has gone up in Dudley Street, Wolverhampton city centre, where Carphone Warehouse used to be.

The well-known coffee chain, which has around 32,000 outlets across the world, closed its Mander Centre branch in August 2019.

But now it's returning to the city on Dudley Street – down the road from the previous branch – and opposite McDonald's and Costa Coffee.

The store will be based in the old Carphone Warehouse unit and the logo outside, which was installed earlier this week, will be illuminated.

Councillor Chris Burden, who welcomed the move, said: "It's good to see someone who left the high street return to our high street – it shows business confidence is increasing in the city."

Councillor Burden said he hoped it would be sign other vacant units would be taken on by businesses, and he said people may be disappointed it wasn't an independent business, the company was providing "good quality jobs for local people."

In August 2019, staff at the previous Starbucks store in the city posed an emotional message on social media announcing the shop was closing.

They said at the time: "We would like to let all our customers know we have some very sad news to share with you all unfortunately our store will be closing on Sunday, August 11.

"We would like to take this opportunity to say that we have loved each and every customer and we have welcomed your custom for all these years."

Daniel Lemon, who submitted the application on behalf of Starbucks, said: “The proposed advertisements meet the criteria within the local policy, are in an appropriate location, and there are no other material considerations which outweigh this application’s accordance with national and local planning policy.”

“The unit is situated in the city centre of Wolverhampton. The site and surrounding area consist of a mixture of retail units at ground floor level, with residential and office units on upper floors. The unit subject of the application was most recently occupied by The Carphone Warehouse.”

No date has been set for when the store will open.