Redundant Woolies worker is soon back in business

Kristian Robertson has used his final payments from the closed national retailer to open his own shop - Robertson's Toyshop in Hawthorn Road.

He has spent a few thousand pounds to turn the one-time estate agent's premises into a toy treat for younger children and their parents.

"I am stocking a lot of branded items and I intend to fill the gap in Bognor left by the closure last year of Gamleys and Woolworths," said Kristian (28).

"My shop will be the only place in the town where you can buy that sort of toy. It would be nice to move into the town centre one day but the costs are too high at the moment."

Kristian, of Tamarisk Close, has plenty of experience knowing what children like. He is the father of two children aged ten and five, with another one due soon.

His optimism about his new venture contrasts with the gloom which surrounded his redundancy in early January.

He began with Woolworths in Bognor nearly seven years earlier as a stock room assistant.

He quickly worked his way up to becoming a supervisor in the Chichester branch and an assistant manager in Brighton before he took charge of his own store in Southwick with 15 staff.

"I was pretty gutted when we closed. Because I had known people in all the other stores, we were all talking about it together," he explained.

"It was almost like a family working in Woolworths. Some people had been there for a long time '“ 30 to 50 years '“ because they enjoyed it so much, which is quite unusual for the retail trade.

"As the manager, I was the last person at the Southwick branch when it was completely empty.

"It was really sad looking around the store then and comparing it with the photos I had taken a couple of months earlier when it was full of shoppers.

"I even had to sell off all the desks and chairs, which was awful."

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