A PENARTH newsagent is hoping to fill a newly found gap in the market following the closure of video rental chain Blockbuster.

A B Snell and Son, on Stanwell Road, has branched out to renting DVD’s following the closure of the Hickman Road branch of Blockbuster’s earlier this month.

The newsagent and stationer has linked up with video rental distributor Moovies and currently stocks around 500 DVD’s in store. In the next few weeks the newsagent will offer an online back catalogue of up to 20,000 movies, with up to four new releases delivered to the shop each week and customers given the chance to order films if they are not in stock.

Customers will be able to rent films for one night for £2.50 and return them the following day.

Richard Snell, who has been running the 54-year family business for the last 20 years, said that the new service had proved popular since it was launched last week.

“It’s been phenomenal so far and people are really thinking it’s great,” he said.

“I had been looking at it beforehand but it was the demise of Blockbuster that made me look again.

“We certainly started to feel that there is a demand still there.

“We are quite excited by the prospects of it. Hopefully with a bit of support we can make a success of it.”

In the week that Blockbuster closed Mr Snell enquired about Moovies on Thursday, signed a contract on the Monday, and by the following Thursday the DVD’s were delivered and he was in business. The newsagent has an exclusivity agreement and nobody can rent out a Moovies franchise within a two mile radius.

“We have had one guy come every day so far, after he rented movies on Friday, Saturday and Sunday,” he added.

“On Saturday we also signed up 25 new members.

“It’s a very simple system and we are very pleased with it.”

He added that the newsagent had extended its opening times by an hour to 7pm to cater for the DVD service. The newsagent will also offer customers the opportunity to check online whether DVD’s are in stock and order them before collection if not.