Trago Mills moving to South Wales

TRAGO Mills has started work on a new £40m retail and leisure facility in South Wales.

The development in Merthyr Tydfil will be the independent retailer's first site outside Devon and Cornwall.

A turf cutting ceremony is taking place at the site on Friday.

The company recently started work on a new £3million DIY Centre at their flagship store in Newton Abbot.

The new store, adjacent to the Cyfarthfa Retail Park, is due to open in spring 2018 and will comprise a 30,250 square metre building, with warehousing, support services and administrative offices, together with internal roads and car parking.

The new store will incorporate many of the retailer's signature styles, including 17 'Trago Towers'.

It is expected to create around 400 jobs in the retail, leisure and warehousing sectors.

Trago have appointed Kier Construction to build the new store, which will also include a café, garden centre, bandstand and adventure dome.

There are plans to develop the site further, by adding a petrol station and leisure facilities.

Trago, which has been a popular discount retailer in the South West for over 50 years, was founded in the mid 1960s in Cornwall by Mike Robertson, father of the current owner and chairman Bruce Robertson.

Kier Construction

Cardiff-based Kier Construction to undertake the build.

Anthony Irving, managing director of Kier Construction, Western & Wales, said: "We are delighted to be working with Trago Mills.

"The project will bring significant benefits to the local supply chain, with employment and training opportunities for the local community throughout the construction phase of this locally significant scheme."

Trago Merthyr Tydfil construction facts:

• There will be 17 towers on the building. Trago is famous for its unique architecture, including the iconic 'Trago Towers'.

• The building will have a one- mile perimeter

• There will be 15,000 cubic metres of concrete in the building and service yards – equal to five full Olympic swimming pools

• There will be over 2,500 tonnes of steel in the building – equivalent to the weight of 204 double decker buses

• The overall footprint of the building including outbuildings is approximately 33,188 square metres – equivalent to 4.6 football pitches

• The site footprint up to the first plateau (where there is a planned petrol filling station) is 158,947 square metres – or equivalent to 22 football pitches

• The overall site footprint to include all plateaus (for phase 2 of the project) is 441,807 square metres – or equivalent to 61 football pitches

• There will be 7,275m of drainage – equal to 1.4 laps of the Silverstone Grand Prix track

• 54,197 square metres of tarmac will be laid – equal to 7.6 football pitches

• If all the Euro clad panels being used in construction were laid vertically end to end, it would be higher than Mount Everest

• There will be over 250 people working on the project during the peak of construction

Bumped into Bruce on the beach at Looe Music Festival.
He's very much and oval ball lover. Not really into the football, apart from supporting our local team a few times.

Done some work for him. Not a fan (to put it politely).

I like his father when he was on Plymouth Sound late night programme with David Bassett. Both never held back.

They are not moving to South Wales,  but opening a branch.

pepsipete wrote:

They are not moving to South Wales,  but opening a branch.

I know you would pick me up on that Pete