Long-standing Doncaster city centre toy store announces its closure

Toytown, a popular fixture in the Frenchgate Centre for a number of years, will shut its doors later this year, its owners have announced.

Commercial director Brian Simpson said: “It is with regret that I confirm we are due to close our long-standing store in Frenchgate shopping centre later this year, most likely before the end of September.

"We have been in discussions for a long time with the landlords to find a better unit location in the centre so we could present our product offering to the customer base in Doncaster.

"Our current location is in a very low footfall area and our sales have been suffering annually since 2016.

"We have looked at multiple options for units but none of them would have worked for our product displays, and we could no longer sustain the losses we were experiencing from the current location, so our only option was to close.

“We are looking for other locations in the Doncaster area, but if this is going to go ahead it will likely be in 2023.”

It is another blow for toy shoppers in Doncaster.

In 2017, nationwide chain Toys R Us, which had a huge branch off White Rose Way in Doncaster, announced its closure, with the unit later becoming a B&M store.

The firm also opened a pop up branch in the Frenchgate Centre in the run up to Christmas 2016 while fellow retailer Smyths opened a store in Doncaster in 2017.