Jobs created as furniture retailer Home Sweet Home moves into Peterborough's Rivergate centre
Retailer opens to encourage more people into centre
A family-owned furniture retailer has just opened in a landmark building in the centre of Peterborough.
Home Sweet Home has moved into the large corner unit in the Rivergate Shopping Centre on the junction of Bourges Boulevard and Lower Bridge Street.
Bosses say the intention of the move into the shopping centre is to help attract more people into the city centre.
Co-owner Michel Lumb said: “We looked around at various towns and cities, such as Kings Lynn, Norwich and Cambridge before choosing Peterborough.
“We just felt that our furniture would be welcomed by the people of Peterborough.
“And we love the idea of being in the heart of the city centre and giving people the option of just walking here to see our products rather than having to drive out to a retail park.
“They might not even have specifically thought about buying furniture but they can browse and look around the shop.
“We also feel that our presence here will also help open up the city centre.”
Mr Lumb said the store had already created four jobs and it was hoped to be able to recruit more staff in the near future.
The business, which was set up 15 years ago in March, Cambridgeshire, prides itself on its British-made products , which are ‘competitively’ priced.
Mr Lumb said: “Because they don’t have to come from China, we have short delivery times of about four weeks.”
Home Sweet Home, whose other founders are Dillon Stevens and Max Bailey, has outlined ambitions to open a number of stores across the region over the next few years.
Its arrival in Rivergate will fill a major space that has been empty for about five years after Yours’ Clothing’s BadRhino brand moved out in 2020.
However, prior to the fashion retail’s arrival in September 2018, the premises had been let to furniture giant Multiyork until its collapse in November 2017.
In January 2021, the national dental business, Mydentist, submitted plans to Peterborough City Council to change the use of the shop from retail to allow the premises to become a dental surgery. The plans did not come to fruition.