Hello! We’re Closed Now – Comet at Ladymead

Published on: 21 Nov, 2012
Updated on: 26 Nov, 2012

Comet’s store at Ladymead in Guildford closed for the last time on Tuesday (November 20).

The Comet store at Ladymead, Guildford.

Today (Wednesday), staff were packing up, putting bubble wrap around the goods that had been on display. A notice on the door, beneath the sign that reads ‘hello’, advised customers to check out Comet’s website “to find your nearest store”.

The national goods retail chain went into receivership at the beginning of November. Details on its website state that: “The joint administrators of Comet have today [Saturday, November 17] confirmed plans to close 41 Comet stores by the end of November, unless a buyer can be found for the business in the meantime. A closing down sale with increased discounts has, therefore, begun in 27 stores today and will begin in a further 14 stores early next week. More generous discounts will also be applied to products across all of the other 195 Comet stores, which continue to trade as usual, from Monday.

“While the administrators will look to redeploy staff from any stores which do face closure to other stores nearby, there will inevitably be redundancies. A dedicated employee helpline is in place and the company is running an employee assistance programme to help those staff made redundant find other jobs.”

The website then names the stores that have already closed. It lists 19 that closed on Monday, ranging from Falkirk in Scotland to Barnstaple in Devon, while on Tuesday a further eight stores were closed including Guildford, Barrow-in-Furness, Birmingham, Crawley, Glasgow, Halifax, Southend and Wrexham.

The brief notice on the door advising customers to check out Comet’s website for more details.

Comet was founded in 1933 as a business charging batteries for wireless sets. It opened its first store in 1968, in Hull, and was bought by Kingfisher in 1984, which expanded the Comet brand into one of the most familiar names on the high street.

Responses to Hello! We’re Closed Now – Comet at Ladymead

Gerald Bland Reply

November 21, 2012 at 2:59 pm

I’m told the Lease has been bought by a supermarket operator !
Gordon Bridger Reply

November 21, 2012 at 7:26 pm

Ideal for Waitrose
David Smith Reply

November 25, 2012 at 7:00 pm

Unit 6, Europa Park, Ladymead (the recently closed Comet store) is the only unit that has planning for food sales. Standard Life who own the premises recently put in for planing permission to subdivide and said they’d give up this right if permission was granted. This was, however, before Comet went bust. Perhaps Standard Life have let the original format to a food retailer? If so, there may be nothing GBC can do.
chris rowley Reply

December 22, 2012 at 7:26 pm

Does anyone know what’s happening with the store room / warehouse racking? I’d be interested in some!