THE MAN WHO PULLED OFF THE REGENERATION OF STROUD’S TOWN CENTRE

Mark Dransfield has invested millions in making Stroud’s sad old shopping centre into a vibrant retail destination

By Ian Mean Business West Gloucestershire

If you thought that High Street retail was dead and buried, you need to have a chat with Mark Dransfield, whose confidence in Stroud has led to an investment now hovering around £25 million.

And in my view, it’s not exaggerating to call his investment in the old Merrywalks shopping centre as a game changer for Stroud. The town was recently voted the best place to live in the country by the Sunday Times.

It has taken an outsider, a property developer from Grimethorpe near Barnsley, to really inject some drive and enthusiasm to improve the town, which has hitherto lacked capital investment and had little development vision for the future.

Mark’s company, Dransfield Properties, bought the decaying shopping centre for £10 million two and a half years ago and has transformed it under its new name –Five Valleys.

Rothschilds, one of his bankers, had offered him the site and he remembers his first trip to Stroud from Sheffield.

“I had never been to Gloucestershire in my life”, he tells me. “We had built a Lidl in Midsomer Norton and a QuickSave in Weston-Super-Mare.

“The centre on the glossy brochure bore no resemblance to the devastation I saw here when I arrived, and I was about to turn round and go home.

“It just smelt of decay and there were even mushrooms growing.

“But here was a multi-storey car park, a bus station and a railway station all close together. I thought we needed locking up

Director

if we couldn’t make it work – there really was an opportunity.”

Mark’s wife, Deborah had been diagnosed with cancer and she died two and half years ago after 30 years of marriage.

“I didn’t know how long Deborah and I would have together so that’s why I bought Stroud,” he tells me. “I needed something to consume myself with.”

Stroud District Council’s then chief executive, David Hagg, had visited Mark’s town centre schemes at Fox Valley, Sheffield and at Morpeth.

“I was inspired by David’s support”, said Mark. “He was very forward thinking”.

When the district council turned down an out-of-town planning application, Mark decided he had the support to buy Merrywalks. If the council had approved that application, he would not have invested in Stroud.

The die was cast.

“Everything was turned round quickly by the council,” Mark says.

There was further support from GFirst LEP, Gloucestershire’s Local Enterprise Partnership, with a grant of £3 million and a loan of £1 million.

“On the strength of David Hagg’s support, GFirst LEP and the council’s fortitude over the planning application, we went ahead and bought it.”

Was it worth it? I asked.

“I think so. I have enjoyed it. I do now feel part of the place and people have made me very welcome. I am 58 now. I don’t need to work, but I love the challenge.”

Town centres should be the heartbeat of the community

Mark has strong views about the survival of retail shops.

“Every town centre should be the heartbeat of the community. Retail is theatre. It is not about building a piece of furniture that will last 200 years. We are a nation of shopkeepers and a nation of shoppers.

“People like to go out to get a service, but I think our industry has been extremely lazy. Our sprawling town centres and out of town centres have gone berserk. My honest opinion is that businesses have been recklessly rolled out.

“We have adopted this American philosophy of business and it is just outrageous.”

He means short termism and anything for a quick buck.

“Hopefully, with Covid we can see the back of this – most of these businesses have now gone to the wall.”

Artisan food and other stores have opened alongside the new Sandersons department store, but Mark Dransfield hasn’t finished yet. The next phase will deliver a new medical centre and improvements planned for the upper mall.

“It really makes me feel proud”, said Mark as he heads off to the company flat in the centre to cook his fish dinner.

Mark was born at Grimethorpe near Barnsley where one of my favourite films, Brassed Off, was made.

Later he sponsored the now famous Grimethorpe Colliery Brass band. His dad was a bobby and they moved to Hull. Mark hated school and just wanted to be a professional footballer.

He left school at 16 with Maths and English O’Levels to work for a builder in Hull as a costings clerk. He was soon promoted to junior surveyor. By the time he was 21, he was director of another building company.

Mark has now built 24 Aldi stores, 15 for Safeway and worked with Morrisons and Asda.

“I used to know the towns in the UK by their supermarkets and I loved it.”

Town centre regeneration schemes followed at Sutton in Ashfield, Selby and Morpeth.

“It is all about relationships and being honest with people,” he tells me. “It’s so rewarding to see the transformation of these towns.

“I am a prickly customer to deal with sometimes because I want to get things done.”

He’s making his presence felt in Stroud and the town is far better for it.