New furniture store for Carlisle

It's new outlet will open on English Street, near the Crown & Mitre Hotel, on Wednesday, in premises formerly occupied by clothing retailer Taking Shape.

This comes following a spate of other national chains opening branches in the city, including Primark.

Sharps specialises in fitted furniture for bedrooms and home offices.

The company was set up in 1973 and has its headquarters in Bilston, near Wolverhampton. It is is owned by American private equity group Sun Capital Partners, who bought the firm in 2011 after Sharps' then parent company entered administration.

This new store in English Street will employ two people and anyone who goes into the outlet will be given the company's "created with you experience", which includes discussing the full range of products and taking into account customer's lifestyles.

Peter Welsh, retail operations director at Sharps, was pleased that the firm was making its way to Cumbria.

He said: “We are looking forward to the opening of our brand new showroom in Carlisle and offering local homeowners the chance to take a closer look at our fitted bedroom and home office ranges.”

This is the company's first full store in the county though it did previously run an outlet within Homebase on Carlisle's Kingstown Industrial Estate.

The firm has more than 80 showrooms across the UK and bills itself as the experts in creating "innovative storage solutions" and offers a wide range of styles of furniture.

A number of big retail names have made their way to Carlisle city centre this year.

Australian children's stationer Smiggle came to The Lanes along with Toys R Us in September, followed by Virgin Media this month.

Most notably, Primark also opened its doors this month to a hugely popular response.

Clothing firm Jack Wills has secured permission for a shopfront on English Street and Disney have announced plans to return to the city by the end of this month in The Lanes' former Miss Selfridge store.