A setback occurred in April 2015 when Tesco, one of the centre's anchor tenants, announced it was closing several stores across the UK, including its Runcorn store. Tesco had operated a large supermarket in the shopping centre since the 1970s. The floor-space had been reduced in the early 2000s and the store rebranded as a Tesco Metro. The large Tesco unit was not long vacant when The Range announced in August the same year that they were to open a new store in the same units.