A BOLTON electrical goods store will become the town centre's latest high profile casualty.

Tandy in Nelson Square has announced it is to close this month as part of a shake-up prompted by Carphone Warehouse's takeover of the company.

Most of Tandy's 268 stores across the country are being converted into branches of the fast-growing mobile phone store.

But the axe will fall on the Bolton outlet on September 28 because the town already has two Carphone Warehouse branches.

In a statement, a Tandy spokesman said: "A small number of our portfolio, including the Bolton store, overlapped with existing Carphone Warehouses.

"As a consequence we will not be renewing the Tandy lease. Individuals will be given redundancy agreements based on their length of service."

The news comes just a week after Virgin Megastores confirmed their Market Place store was closing with the loss of 22 jobs.

That revelation came on top of an announcement in April when Arcadia -- owners of Dorothy Perkins, Principles and Miss Selfridge -- announced all three Market Place stores were to shut.

But town centre bosses will take comfort from the fact that spate of closures is almost entirely down to national shake-ups rather than reflecting trading conditions in Bolton.

In the case of the Virgin Megastore, company bosses claimed the location of the Bolton store was too limited for its drive towards ever larger premises.

Rumours that the Richard Branson-owned chain was eyeing up a move to the soon-to-close C&A store in Hotel Street have been denied.

But Virgin would not rule out moving elsewhere in Bolton if suitable premises can be found. Tandy refused to reveal how many staff will be affected by the redundancies.