Dunelm will be opening its newest store in Cannock, in the West Midlands, in March, securing 60 jobs for local people.
The homewares retailer is moving into a 30,500sq ft unit on Linkway Retail Park in the town and will be offering over 20,000 product lines. On Thursday, March 13, the store will be opened by the chairman of Cannock Chase Council, Councillor Doris Grice, and Barney Bear, the official mascot for Dunelm's chosen charity, Barnardo's.

The new Cannock location is spread over two floors (ground floor measuring 18,500sq ft and first floor 12,000sq ft) and has been designed to accommodate as many of Dunelm's ranges of homeware items as possible. This includes household names such as Dorma, Fogarty, Morphy Richards and Brabantia, plus new designs from Dunelm's own exclusive collection.

The retailer's usual ranges of bedlinen, lighting, interior decoration and cookware will also be on offer, as well as a specialist furniture section. In addition, the new store will provide a made-to-measure curtains, blinds and accessories service with in-store advisors on hand to help. There will also be a coffee shop and the store will operate a reserve and collect service too.

Dunelm chief executive, Nick Wharton, said: "We are always excited about the opening of a new store. It takes a lot of hard work, investment and commitment getting a new store up and running and we are delighted to welcome Councillor Doris Grice to open our doors for the very first time. We are confident that Cannock will continue to play a big part in the continued success of the company and look forward to introducing local shoppers to our diverse homewares offering."

At the beginning of the month, the retailer's like-for-like sales dipped in the first half of its current financial year, although they picked up in the few weeks before Christmas.

Bill and Jean Adderley founded Dunelm in 1979, selling ready-made curtains on a market stall in Leicester. After 35 years the business has developed into one of the leading homewares retailers with a chain of 142 stores, plus more planned throughout the year.