Sports Direct to move into vacant BHS store

The new Sports Direct will also include USC, Evans Cycles and Game inside the store

A former department store that has stood vacant for eight years will finally welcome a new store.

The former BHS store in Ipswich's Buttermarket will become home to a brand new 25,000 sq ft Sports Direct later this year.

Terry Baxter, chairman of the Ipswich Central business group, welcomed the news as "a really important part of the town centre's regeneration".

The building has been empty since 2016 after the collapse of BHS which saw the loss of 11,000 jobs nationwide.

Sports Direct will leave its existing store on Carr Street

Along with Sports Direct, the Frasers Group said it would bring other brands from its group to the store including USC, Evans Cycles and Game.

A Frasers Group spokesperson said: "We are pleased to be opening a new Sports Direct store.

"The store will provide customers with access to the world’s best sports and lifestyle brands. The store will open late summer this year.”

Sports Direct already has a store on Carr Street in Ipswich town centre which will shut after the new opening in Buttermarket.

It also has a large store on Ransomes Europark in east Ipswich.

Mr Baxter said: "There's been talk about Sports Direct coming into this site for a number of years... we seem to have had a few false starts.

"For some time we've been looking at actually shrinking the town centre and having more of our shopping concentrated in a tighter area - within Upper Brook Street and right through to Museum Street.

"So this is really important as part of that process."

He added that he hoped "this sort of vote of confidence by Fraser Group after some time is going to be the catalyst" for more businesses to move into the town centre.