Fri 3rd Oct 2014 - Everards to partner Next in retail development Everards to partner Next in retail development: The Leicester-based brewer and pub retailer Everards has joined forces with Next, the UK’s largest clothes retailer, to turn the Everards brewery site into a retail development. The development if granted planning permission, will be anchored by a 90,000 sq ft Next Home and Garden store, creating a flagship close to Next’s headquarters in Enderby, Leicestershire. Other leading retailers will join Next and will be confirmed in due course, the partners said. Everards has already secured conditional outline planning consent for a brewery, pub, restaurant, food and drink cluster and public realm development which will be built on land owned by the company adjacent to its existing Castle Acres site on Soar Valley Way, Narborough, Leicester. Both initiatives are expected to be presented as detailed planning applications to Blaby Council in the first half of 2015 with development planned for opening towards the end of 2017 creating up to 1,000 jobs. Richard Everard, chairman of Everards Brewery, said, “It is immensely exciting to be working alongside the excellent team at Next to promote our existing Castle Acres site for retail development – investing in our local economy and creating so many new jobs. This initiative dovetails extremely well with our plans for our new food and drink cluster at Soar Valley which, once delivered, will further develop and strengthen our fifth-generation family company”. Lord Wolfson, chief executive of Next, said: “This development will give Leicester access to the widest selection of Next products in the UK. Next is hugely supportive of this opportunity to create local jobs and give Leicester a stunning new architectural gateway development.”