Retailer Hughes Electrical has strengthened its position in a Norfolk market town by snapping up a rival business.

The Lowestoft-based firm has invested £500,000 into a new store in London Street, Swaffham, after buying out electrical retailer TK Drake.

The move has led the EDP Top100 company to close its current shop in the town's market place.

It comes after the business revealed a bold digital strategy last year to capitalise on the growing customer appetite for click and collect – a service where people can buy online and then pick up the product in store.

Since then, it has been buoyed by surging sales over the Christmas period thanks to its 'busiest day in history' on Black Friday.

Malcolm Tuff, Hughes regional manager, said: 'We are always looking for the opportunity to expand our operations in market towns and when the opportunity came to acquire the electrical business of TK Drake and its freehold premises it was too good to miss.

'This represents a significant investment for Hughes but we are also confident it will be a real boost to Swaffham as a whole and mean people can shop locally for all their electrical goods.'

The company, which employs about 900 staff nationwide and is forecast to turnover £110m this year, also expects to open a new store at the former Two Bears Hotel in Great Yarmouth by the summer.

Keeping a strong presence in Norfolk market towns remains a key focus for the business, despite plans to bolster its business online, the company said.

Stuart Baker, manager of the Swaffham store, said: 'Very importantly we now have a large warehouse dedicated to the increasingly popular click and collect service available via our website meaning customers can drive up to the back of the store, via Theatre Street, and have the goods loaded for them.'

Hughes Electrical rolled out a far-reaching rebranding exercise in July last year, which saw six of its biggest sites relaunched under the name Hughes Plus, including three former Bennetts shops.

But the plans triggered the end of the group's smaller stores in Bowthorpe, Colchester and Woodbridge.

The company said it would review the success of rebranding before deciding whether it should be rolled out across the whole group, including its Apollo stores in the East Midlands.

The strategy also spelled the end of the Bennetts brand which was first launched in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, in 1958.