In November 2009 Cambridge United announced the opening of a new City Centre retail outlet in the Grafton Centre.

It has been a long term ambition of the Club to increase its presence in the City and this short-term project has enabled us to evaluate the viability of this plan.

General Mananger Robert Smith explains to cambridgeunited.com, "After evaluation the Club has made the decision to close the shop in the short term. We intend to assess the long-term retail strategy with retail partners Vandanel to determine where and when is the right time to go forward with a permanent presence in the City Centre.

"While the results have shown us viability over the Christmas period, sales in the new year and projected sales to the end of the second quarter present more risk to the Club than we consider prudent to take.

"We are all aware that stock availability has been a problem as has the generally narrow range of goods we have been able to offer. To go forward it is essential to get these things right."

Robert continued, "We must be prudent and not take unnecessary risks. The opening of the shop involved the directors of the Club underwriting the associated costs and I am delighted to say that in the three months since opening we have not had to call on this support.

"While we believe the potential exists for a permanent City Centre retail outlet, to make this actually viable requires a wider range of goods being available to ensure that we have the best chance of success in this venture. We will assess over the next few months a more formal plan with a view to a potential permanent location and make a final decision on the way forward in the summer."

The project has been a great success in raising the profile of the Club and Cambridge United would like to pay special thanks to volunteer Clive Jones who has been magnificent in his input, help and support of the project for the last three months.

The last opening day of the shop will be Friday 12 February 2010.

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