AN outdoor equipment retailer is planning to create 30 jobs in a new store on the outskirts of York.

Great Outdoors Superstore, a family business set up 30 years ago in the former Grainger covered market in Newcastle, has emerged as the firm behind the plans for the former Ikon & Diva nightclub at Clifton Moor, first revealed in The Press earlier this week.

The company aims to spend about £750,000 refitting the building, which has not been used since the nightclub closed in 2005.

Great Outdoors Superstore, which has two high street branches in Newcastle and Sunderland and another large format store in North Tyneside, intends to open the new store in February 2012.

Malcolm Crone, chairman of the business, which he runs with his son, Paul, who is managing director, said the store will be the first time the company has expanded outside the north east.

It will also be their largest outlet, with 25,000 sq ft of retail space and an external display area of 8,000 to 10,000 sq ft, decorated with imagery created by the company’s own designer.

The company will shortly be recruiting a management team, which it will train in other branches, ready to run the store when it opens next year employing 30 plus people.

Mr Crone said the new store represented “huge” expansion for the business.

He said: “We have never expanded quickly.

“Our last expansion was the last big store format five years ago.”

Mr Crone said he was not worried by competition from other outdoor stores which have also chosen to open in York before them. He said the business had its own format, focusing on branded products, rather than its own brand, and he said the business’s family values are reflected by loyal staff in excellent customer service.

He said: “We pride ourselves on service and value and we will create as much work locally as we can. We’re a family business and our staff are more like family members. I have still got the first member of staff I ever employed and another who’s been with us 25 years.”

He said now City of York Council has approved alterations to existing planning permission to change the layout and appearance of the building, the business, in conjunction with developer Henry Boot, can start building work “fairly soon”.