Huge expansion for UK retailer

Long-established Newcastle retailer JG Windows is currently undergoing a huge expansion which it says will make it one of the UK’s destination music stores and possibly the country’s largest. 

The firm, which has been trading for more than 100 years, is investing £1m over 12 years in an expansion which will see it take over the former call centre next door to it. 

“Our new store expansion will allow for an even wider range of products to be displayed and the creation of a new roles, the first of which is musical instrument manager, to oversee the huge new instrument floor,” said the firm’s managing director Rupert Bradbury.

The stores basement, which is currently home to its guitars, will become an expanded acoustic piano department, while the first floor, including its new space, will house all the other musical instruments, alongside sheet music.

It will also feature soundproof rooms where customers will be able to try before they buy, a training area where manufacturers can teach staff and music teachers about new instruments, and a grand piano showroom area  housing high end models with price tags of up to £25,000.

“Across the country, in cities like Glasgow and Bath, we are seeing dedicated music shops closing down, but here in Newcastle we are more than healthy, with JG Windows, the guitar shop on Grainger Street and another music shop down on Dean Street,” said the company’s chairman, Stewart Hindmarsh.

The store is remaining open while the expansion takes place and the new, expanded version of the store will open in September.

“Of that, more than 8,000sq ft will be devoted to instruments – we’ll be a kind of department store for music. The stock alone will cost £500,000, and then you have the new job and the rent increase, over the term of a 12 year lease – it’s a million pound development.

While work progresses to create “the largest city centre music store in the UK” – which is expected to take until September – the existing store will remain open to the public.