THE future tenants of a major Darlington store have been announced after months of uncertainty.

C & A have been planning to abandon the two-level anchor site in the town's Cornmill Shopping Centre for more than a year.

Company management announced the store will close on January 20 next year, to be replaced by a Littlewoods store.

All 25 employees at C & A, who have been informed of the closing date, have received on-site help in their search for new employment through training and placement support.

The C & A store spearheaded the new shopping centre when it opened in 1992, occupying the two trading floors, which have a combined selling area of 1,470 square metres.

But it was announced in January last year that the firm planned to leave the centre as it was losing money in the unit.

Two months ago, C & A also announced its intention to close its operations in the UK and Ireland over the next six to eight months.

It said the decision came 'in the face of continuing difficulties in the UK due to the changing face of the UK high street as competition had become increasingly aggressive'.

C & A stores in Newcastle, Gateshead and Middlesbrough have already closed and a spokesman said the Sunderland store was likely close at the same time as Darlington.

A new tenant has not yet been found for the Sunderland site.

Liverpool-based discount department store group TJ Hughes was strongly linked with the site, which C & A said it would not leave until new tenants were found, but in April it pulled out, saying the cost was too high.

Neil McCausland, managing director of C & A UK, said: "The decision to close our stores and operations in the UK and Irelend has been a very difficult but necessary step. However, the commitment and loyalty of the store staff has been amazing."

Management at the Cornmill, where Littlewoods' subsidiary company Index already has a site, had no comment to make on the changes