Home superstore The Range has announced it is to open two new stores early next year, in Sheffield and Gloucester.
The first of these will be Sheffield in March and this will be the company's 86th store in the UK. It is moving into a former Homebase unit on the Meadowhall Retail Park just outside the city centre and around 150 new jobs will be created.

Owner of The Range, Chris Dawson, said: "We are very pleased to be creating a number of jobs in the area and look forward to inviting potential employees to join the team. I would like to thank the [Sheffield] council for welcoming us and being so supportive."

Also this week, the retailer announced it will be opening its 87th store in Gloucester next April. This follows recent news that part of The Range's Gloucester distribution centre will close but 120 jobs are expected to be created at the new store. The company is taking over a unit from home and DIY product retailer What! on a mini retail park in the city.

The Range will be selling its usual array of DIY, homewares and furniture products in amongst its 16 departments in each of the new stores.

Mr Dawson said: "It was a tough decision to close the distribution centre however we are confident that the new store will create lots of new jobs and hopefully become an integral part of the community.

"Gloucester is a location with so much potential, we are continuing to grow fast and expand and I am confident that The Range Gloucester will help us in doing this."

These stores follow a period of several new store openings in recent months; in November the Maidstone store in Kent was one of seven that were opened in a two week period.