Waltons is open again with a new owner who firmly believes in the power of ’bricks and mortar’ retail and is promising a bright new era again for the shop.

Mark Pugh has taken up the reins by vowing to breathe new life into the electrical store.

And the 51-year-old British retailer and entrepreneur is promising to make Waltons, a household name in the island for nearly 50 years, great again.

His dramatic intervention comes only weeks after the former Waltons boss Robert Byers shut the premises at Cooil Smithy on the Isle of Man Business Park with a notice starkly announcing: ’Closed until further notice.’

And his wife Samantha Byers later disclosed they were starting liquidation proceedings.

The doors have opened to the public again with a so-called ’soft opening’. The shop is trading again as Waltons and the business name is now registered as Waltons Direct Ltd.

Mr Pugh told Business News he was ’very excited’ and looking forward to the challenges ahead.

He has been aware of Waltons for a number of years through his involvement in the retail electrical trade going back many years. He owns a string of shops called Spatial in the north west of England and is involved in a huge ’buying group’ for dozens of stores

His father was a also a friend of the late Barry Whitmore, a former boss of Waltons.

Business News spoke to Mr Pugh as he prepared to re-open the store along with Kevin Kneale and Paul Smith, who have been brought back on board at Waltons. Paul has 32 years experience while Kevin has 21 years there under his belt.

Mr Pugh, who intends taking on more staff, said an important part of the business will be the repair centre for televisions and audio equipment.

He said: ’It’s been a whirlwind couple of weeks but everything seems to be now falling into place.’

Sitting on a leather sofa in the demonstration room in front of a giant 75-inch television Mr Pugh said: ’Waltons is such a great name in the island. I like to do my research and some of the comments being made online is that it is inevitable that retail is going the way it is because of Amazon and the internet.

’If people keep doing the same thing then businesses won’t survive. So we are going to do a few things here that I hope will ensure this business grows and expands. The key thing is that the perception is that the internet is cheaper. We will 100% ensure that we will be highly competitive.’

He added that the business will be able to tap into the buying group with more 100 businesses involved.

’So we will have the purchasing power behind us to enable us to be highly competitive.

’The second thing is availability. People were complaining that certain shops don’t have stock availability, they have to wait ages. Our intention is to run this business with good stock levels on key lines to ensure customers don’t have to wait. We are all about having stock here so island residents don’t have to wait for their product.’

Mr Pugh said they would be giving the highest priority to stock profiles to see what products will work best.

He believes customer choice is ’better than ever’ and ’long may that continue’.

He continued: ’Let’s not move backwards. What we have to do is up our game, give the customer the service they deserve, prices they deserve and stock availability.’

He added: ’We intend to invest in stock and into repairs.

’We are also bringing different products into the business such as Ruark, which specialises in audio and sound systems.’