Costa Coffee is to close its Hale Barns café after 11 years, dealing a further blow to the village.
The café, which occupies a prominent corner unit opposite the main Asda building, will shut its doors for the final time at 5pm this Friday, 15th May.
Staff were informed of the closure earlier this year and have been offered a transfer to another Costa branch.
No announcement has yet been made about a new tenant for the unit.
Costa was the first confirmed retailer to sign up for Hale Barns Square back in February 2015, agreeing a lease on the 1,500 sq ft unit with space for 57 customers inside and 24 outside.
The café opened that spring as part of the £30m redevelopment of the former 1960s shopping precinct.
The closure comes as a further setback for Hale Barns Square.
Anchor tenant Booths departed the site in 2024, saying it "cannot see a future where the store will be profitable". Asda subsequently took over the 30,000 sq ft unit.
A restaurant unit facing on to Hale Road has also failed to attract enough business for a succession of businesses including Fox, Barns Bar & Grill and Balchão. Currently the space is still advertising the proposed opening of a private GP business called MyGP Clinic, with an opening date of "summer 2025", although it has said it will be opening its doors sometime this year.
Costa Coffee's parent company, Whitbread, has not commented on the closure.
