MINEHEAD business leaders were this week hailing growing signs that the town could be set for a retail revival.

Four of the most prestigious shop premises have been snapped up by national and local traders and Minehead now has the lowest retail vacancy rate in the Southwest.

Last week, Minehead’s largest department store building in Park Street, previously a branch of M&Co, which closed in February, was re-opened by fashion retailer Peacocks as a men‘s, women’s and children’s clothes store.

A spokesman for the 200-store chain said: “We are extremely excited to join other traders in Minehead with our new store and supporting the local community and visitors with great value family fashion.

“We are employing a core team of ten along with additional seasonal staff.”

“New investors are seeing the town as a good opportunity,” said Minehead Chamber of Commerce chairman Graham Sizer.

“Footfall figures for the town show we are outperforming most other seasonal destinations in the Southwest. Retailers have decided the time is right for expansion and shops certainly don’t lie empty for long.”

Another major retail site in the Parade, formerly occupied by the Lighting Company, has now been reopened by the Watchet-based Clathers fashion store, co-owned by mother and son Bernadette and Callum Langdon.

After opening their first shop in Watchet in 2017, Clathers now have five stores across the Southwest. Callum Langdon said: “We’re really excited to open our flagship store in our home town - something we would never have been able to do without the support of our local customers.”

The Hummingbird fashion store, with busy outlets in Friday Street and Dunster, will be adding another store - the former Exmoor Interiors shop on the corner of the Avenue and Blenheim Road -in the next few weeks.

Shop owner Helen Binney has received over 40 online posts congratulating her on the new venture. She said: “Thank you for being as excited as we are, and for your well-wishes for the new store.”

E-Cig City, the Torbay based e-cigarette group, has also seen Minehead as a place to expand. The former Barclays Bank outlet in the Parade, closed for several years, was scheduled to reopen this week.