Could Mountain Warehouse store be heading to Halifax?

The group has just signed a deal for a new store in Sheffield at St James Retail Park (the Norton College redevelopment) which will open in early 2018 and it will open a store at a new phase of the Cortonwood Retail Park in Barnsley in August.

The firm is also keen to find a store in Halifax after a deal recently fell though.

Its other targets include Leeds, Huddersfield, Helmsley, Thirsk, Guisborough and Bridlington.

The group’s chief executive Mark Neale said Yorkshire is the perfect place for new stores as the county has such

remarkable countryside on its doorstep.

“Yorkshire is a key area for us. We like being in nice, middle class market towns, county towns and cathedral cities,” he said.

“Yorkshire has one of the most amazing countrysides in Europe. We opened our first Yorkshire store in 1998.”

The group already has stores in places like Beverley, Ilkley, Northallerton, Ripon, Whitby, Harrogate, Scarborough and Skipton. Mr Neale said that the economic downturn could work in the group’s favour as more people holiday at home in the wake of the pound’s slump. In addition as people tighten their belts, rambling offers a free way for families to entertain themselves.

“In previous downturns we have done well,” he said.