Screwfix set to open store in Cookstown

The move is part of the hardware giant’s expansion plan for Northern Ireland targeting regional towns.

Enniskillen has also been earmarked along with Cookstown and the plan is expected to create around 16 jobs.

The local store will be located off Sweep Road, which is currently home to a number of business units, including long established Cookstown company Turkington Home Furnishings and next to the Asda supermarket and filling station.

The firm, which is owned by B&Q parent company Kingfisher, expanded its Northern Ireland presence to 11 stores last year, opening new units in Omagh and Belfast’s Duncrue Industrial Estate.

A planning application was recently submitted to Mid Ulster District Council, for a new store in a 6,000 sq ft unit at Sweep Road, Cookstown.

Screwfix currently has three stores in Belfast, as well as outlets in Newtownabbey, Ballymena, Lisburn, Bangor, Newry, Lurgan, Londonderry and Omagh.

Despite a difficult start to 2018, the DIY catalogue store has continued to be the feather in parent company Kingfisher’s hat.

While poor weather was blamed on a 9% sales slump at sister company B&Q in the three months to April 30, Screwfix went the other way with a 9% improvement in the same period.

Kingfisher also added another 10 Screwfix stores across the UK and Ireland during the first quarter of 2018.

Based in Yeovil, the company started life as the Woodscrew Supply Company in 1979.

It evolved into a mail order catalogue business, before creating its first website in 1999. Kingfisher acquired the company the same year. Screwfix currently has a network of 580 stores across the UK with a further 19 stores in Germany.

Further UK stores are planned to open in the next few years.