ALMOST 60 jobs look doomed at Chorley's Homeworld store after it was sold this week.

Owners Co-operative Retail Services confirmed the sale of 10 of its 12 Homeworld stores nationwide to Kingfisher.

The outlets will continue to trade for up to the next three months before disappearing.

They have been acquired by Chartwell Land, the property arm of Kingfisher, owner of Woolworths, B&Q, Superdrug and Comet all with outlets in Chorley. Kingfisher has also made a £5bn bid for supermarket chain Asda.

But the new owner said it had no plans for the Chorley site, which could become part of its investment portfolio and be sold off to someone else.

CRS said by off-loading Homeworld, together with its chain of 40 Living department stores, it had completely withdrawn form non-food retailing.

It added that it now planned to concentrate on its food and funerals' businesses.

A spokesperson for CRS said all staff had been informed of the sale at a specially-convened briefing and confirmed the society was consulting with trade unions over the transfer of ownership.

David Boardman, of CRS, said: "We have done a deal for 10 of the Homeworld properties and will trade out the stores for up to 12 weeks. All of them will close in up to 12 weeks.

"It is saying we are a food and funeral business going forward."

He added: "We have tried to inform the staff along the way. Nothing was decided until we had a members' special general council on Saturday."

CRS is offering job counselling and workshops to the 59 staff at Chorley and said it would be asking Kingfisher if it wanted to keep any of the workers. There was also the possibility some staff could be re-deployed into other CRS businesses.

A spokesperson for the new owner said the site would be subject to review, commenting: "Certainly some of the stores Kingfisher will be looking to develop as Kingfisher retail sites such as a B&Q or Woolworth, but the Chorley one, we have no specific plans for at the moment."

She added the jobs were "a CRS issue", adding: "They made a decision to close their stores. We negotiated to buy 10 of the sites. It is not a takeover of their stores. We are literally just buying the sites."

Homeworld opened in Chorley on September 11, 1997. Before that the site was derelict for two years after a failed Normid store, open just three years, closed.

A plan for a leisure complex, including bowling alley, cinema, restaurant and nightclub, was welcomed by the council, but the proposal never materialised.

Jack Wilson, leader of Chorley Borough Council, said: "Obviously I'm disappointed the business hasn't succeeded. It brought choice and jobs to the town."

He said Chorley's economic development chiefs would seek an urgent meeting with the new owner to discuss plans for the site.

Chorley MP Lindsay Hoyle said: "I'm disappointed I wasn't consulted by Homeworld.

"I think it is short-sighted. I think it is bad news for Chorley and obviously any job losses are a major concern to myself and I will be in touch with Kingfisher about the future and whether they will open it as one of their stores.

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