It appears that Dinbych/Denbigh is about to join the supermarket state and benefit from a top-flight supermarket.Cathco, responsible for the development of Rhuthun’s Tesco – the very same people who can’t make their minds up as to whether Tesco Rhuthun should or needs to expand – has acquired the former station yard site in Denbigh, following KwikSave’s closure, announced in March 2006 and effected soon after.
Cathco will develop a new supermarket on the site, plus shops around the periphery. What this will do to the established town centre is anyone’s guess. It could go both ways. The Free Press reported Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury’s were all interested but only Sainsbury's confirmed as such to the paper.
Let’s face it, Dinbych is nowhere near as prosperous at Rhuthun. But it has a larger population of 9,530, nearly double Rhuthun’s. That population, plus those of surrounding settlements (including Trefnant and even Llanelwy/St Asaph), will sustain a larger store than Rhuthun’s.
And a larger store, of whatever brand, may affect Rhuthun/Ruthin. What will that effect be? Will it draw back to Denbigh those people who are now shopping in Rhuthun, following their visit to Tesco (if such people exist)? Will it suck yet more people out of Rhuthun, further debilitating the town centre, already apparently damaged by Tesco?
Denbigh already has two supermarkets, Wm Morrison’s and Lidl. More on Dinbych’s supermarkets here