How is Corby town centre faring? We take a closer look at shop openings, closures and what the future holds

After having a look around and speaking to people in the town, it looks as though it’s doing rather well.

We analysed 189 units as part of our High Street Health Check series, from the top of George Street and Cottingham Road in the north to Elizabeth Street in the south east.

We spoke to traders, politicians and community figures to find out what the town does well, and what needs to be done to entice more shoppers and businesses in.

Our findings

We put every unit into different categories to work out the make-up of our town centre and see which sectors dominate.

Of the 189 units analysed, a total of 19, or 10.1 per cent, were either vacant or long-term closed.

Our findings showed that food and drink has a strong presence in Corby, accounting for just under one-quarter of the town centre’s retail space, split between cafe or restaurant (10.1 per cent), takeaways (5.8 per cent), food retail (6.3 per cent), and pub or bar (2.1 per cent).

Corby’s largest solo category was other, with 14.3 per cent of the units, suggesting that Corby has a good range of shops in its town centre. Notably, four of these were employment agencies. Hair and beauty has 7.9 per cent, while clothing or shoe shops have 6.8 per cent.

The next largest share is mixed retail as well as pharmacy and health which both take up 5.8 per cent.

We have the same number of phone shops as we do estate agents at 4.2 per cent.

Books, music, and games sees 3.2 per cent of the share, as do banks and financial services.

We have as many gambling shops, including two Shipleys, as we do charity shops at 2.6 per cent.

This leaves just newsagents (2.1 per cent), jewellery shops (1.6 per cent), and vape shops (1.1 per cent).

How does Corby compare?

A report by the British Retail Consortium and the Local Data Company found the UK’s overall shop vacancy rate for the fourth quarter of 2022 was 13.8 per cent, higher than the rate of the Corby units we analysed by 3.7 per cent.

So far, Kettering is the only neighbouring town we have looked at as part of our High Street Health Check series.

Compared to Kettering, which was also below the overall shop vacancy rate, Corby has 2.6 per cent fewer vacant or long-term closed units.

The openings and closures

Corby town centre has held up well amid a climate of declining high streets and the rise of online shopping.

The majority of its units remain let and footfall has held up, even during lockdown.

Simon Phipps, asset manager at Sovereign Centros, which runs Corby town centre, said: “Corby town centre is holding up relatively well I would say.

“You only need to walk round the town and see the occupancy, it’s well occupied and has always been.

“Given the size of the town centre, there’s always people coming and going but we’ve welcomed some great new additions of late.

“Retail-wise in terms of square footage, we are certainly just over 90 per cent occupied in retail and that includes all sorts of size units.”

Corby has been less affected by big name closures than Kettering in recent years, but there are still a few notable exceptions.

TJ Hughes’ former building has sat empty for nearly 12 years now.

The unit was bought by Sports Direct, with an opening planned for Easter 2020 but as of yet this has still not come to fruition.

Corby’s Co-op has also been empty for six years, but the building in Alexandra Road has been bought by local landowner MPB Structures which reportedly paid £1.92m for it.

The firm’s housing arm, Glenrowan, has big plans to build about 150 new homes there, the town centre’s biggest housing development for several decades.

Other empty units in Corby that have been empty for an extended period of time include Dorothy Perkins, Burton and Evans, but according to Simon from Sovereign Centros, there is great interest in Corby’s empty retail units.

He said: “I think generally, from a leasing meeting last week, there is demand, there’s still retailers both on a local, regional and national level who are acquiring stores.

“There’s 128 retail units, 150 total with residential and retail, you’ve always got a churn, there's lease events, businesses come and go, businesses expand, businesses move on.

“You never sit still, that's the beauty of that I suppose.”

The empty units in Corby are often put to good use whenever the opportunity arises.

Earlier this month, thanks to use of an empty shop unit provided by Willow Place, you could visit the former Dorothy Perkins shop to see Hunt and Darton, two friends on a mission to make art and create entertaining experiences, lead young local minds to invent and run their own fully functional business on their high street in a creative project.

The latest shops to open in the town centre are Dona and Don Coffee, Snug Interiors, and coffee chain Esquires.

Esquires is the latest of these shops to open and according to owner Tanya Clark it has been going very smoothly so far.

Tanya said: “We weren’t expecting it to be so busy, which is really quite delightful.

“Everyone’s been really positive, with great comments from customers.

“Everyone’s got to know regulars now, so it’s been really good.

“We have loads of regulars and they always ask you ‘what’s your name’, so you get to know customers by name.

“There’s a few people that have said they normally travel outside of Corby to find a nice coffee shop but they said to find this one is quite nice because it is now inviting them back in to the town centre where they feel they’ve got something more local.

“I think it’s a nice town centre, I think you’ve got quite a lot of variety of different shops in here.

“There are a few empty units which I think would be good to build up but I know there’s a sixth form that’s opening just round there.

“I think getting more stalls out on the market would improve the town, sometimes when you come in and it’s empty.

“A few days you’ll get one or two stalls there but it’d be good to get that thriving a little bit.”

The opening of Dona and Don as well as Esquires puts Corby at six dedicated coffee shops, accounting for 3.2 per cent of the units in the town centre.

Simon from Sovereign said: “Everyone’s got their favourite coffee, we’re probably at the point where we’ve done enough now and we always balance that out.

“We are very careful on estate management and getting the mix right.

“It’s not worth putting two same businesses head to head, so we are mindful of that.”

The opening of a new sixth form is also on the horizon for the town centre.

Construction work has begun on Corby’s £9.5m sixth form college.

The new campus is a partnership between The Bedford College Group and North Northamptonshire Council.

The 4,000 sq ft college is set to open in September for 16 to 18-year-olds offering a wide range of A-Level subjects.

It will have a new entrance, more than 25 classrooms, state-of-the-art science labs, resource centres and performance areas.

Students will be able to access an external roof terrace, café and common room areas, all within the town centre.

Simon from Sovereign Centros said: “The big news this month is the completion of the lease to the college which is fantastic.

“That’ll bring 600 or 700 new students into the town centre.

“It is a shining example of what we should be doing with our town centres.”

Corby Indoor Mall

Didn’t think we’d forget the indoor market, did you? Corby Indoor Mall has been a town centre staple for years.

It offers a wide range of independent shops that you often wouldn’t get on the high street.

As part of our High Street Health Check, we’ve analysed Corby Indoor Mall separately to see how it compares to the town centre as a whole.

Corby’s indoor market currently has 15 independent traders, who all offer something different.

Similarly to the town centre the indoor market is also dominated by the other category at 33.3 per cent, highlighting the variety it has.

Next highest is hair and beauty at 26.7 per cent, followed by mixed retail at 13.3 per cent.

Finally, at 6.7 per cent each (one store) is: clothing/shoes, cafe/restaurant, jewellery, food retail, books/music/games, and there is one currently vacant unit, but according to Corby Indoor Mall owner Simon Green, there is a lot of interest in this unit.

He said: “We’ve pretty much always got people waiting for them but then it’s a lot cheaper than a shop.

“Some of them start at £80 a week which includes free internet, lighting and heating, and toilets, just plug your till in and start selling.

“It’s all nice independent shops. It’s a good vibe in there, a real family attitude. It’s the only indoor shopping mall we’ve got.

“There’s not that many empty units in the town centre.

“Kettering’s worse but Kettering is a lot closer to Rushden Lakes, it’s killed their town centre, they lost M&S and everybody.

“Kettering, because it’s closer [to Rushden Lakes], there’s a lot more vacant units in there.

“There’s a demand in Corby, it's just one of those working towns, there’s always been a demand.

“We as a family, we own most of the shops in Corby Old Village and we’ve never got one empty and the rents are really strong compared to say Kettering.

“A better night life [would improve Corby], youngsters haven’t really got somewhere decent to go.

“Kettering’s got a great night time economy and it always has had. A night time economy is something that the town needs.

“If people are going for a late night out, they go to Kettering.”

What does our town council have to say on the town centre?

Cllr Mark Pengelly, leader of Corby Town Council, said: “There’s a lot of work going into the town by both the town centre’s owners and NNC.

“At the town council we’ll discuss the plans for the whole town centre going forward and look at what we do with some of the vacant sites in making Corby town centre a place we’re all proud of.

“We also believe that there should be public consultation in all of this.

“Town centres up and down the country are suffering because of the recession and the way people are now using the likes of Amazon instead.

“In spite of that, we’ve seen Sovereign trying really hard to get all this built up.

“As a town council, we’ll do what we can to put on events and other things and we’re already planning Christmas markets and we have supported the town centre on many initiatives over the last few years such as the get out to shop campaign.”

What do you think about Corby town centre?

You can share your views by joining the debate on our Facebook page or emailing [email protected].