Hobgoblin, the UK’s top Folk music and instrument retailer, has opened a city centre store at Nurton’s Two Colmore Square, mixed-use scheme in Birmingham.
Previously based at the Custard Factory, Hobgoblin which started from humble beginnings in the 1970’s with its first shop in Crawley, has since grown to nine stores, which includes a recent store opening in Brighton.
Offering a collection of all things weird and wonderfully folky, the manager of the new shop, Mark McCabe, said trading has already exceeded expectations and in fact Birmingham was top for sales having seen a significant upturn in the past 12 months.
“We chose the new location in the city centre as there was an obvious demand in Birmingham and we needed a decent amount of space on one floor and close to a major shopping district.
“Accessibility is also important to us, as people will travel to our shop from a distance because of our strong reputation on the folk scene. We also stock an extensive range of instruments including handmade fretted instruments of all kinds and wind and percussion instruments from around the world. So three nearby stations and car parking really swung it for us.”
Nurton Developments has owned Two Colmore Square since 2004, extensively refurbishing it together with the adjoining Cannon House in two main phases, costing over £10 million and comprising a total of 300,000 sq ft of office and retail space.
With just 47,384 of space now available and a dwindling supply of Grade A in the city centre, interest in the remaining is high as the market recovers.
CBRE and GVA act as joint letting agents on the building.