THE intu Merry Hill branch of WHSmith is to close, bosses have confirmed.

The book and stationery store on the lower mall will close for good at the end of March.

A spokesperson for WHSmith said: "We can confirm that the WHSmith store in Merry Hill will be closing at the end of March when our lease terminates.

"We’d like to thank all our local customers for shopping with us; they can continue to buy our great range of products at our WHSmith store in Stourbridge.”

A spokesperson at intu Merry Hill said of the news: "We are sorry to hear that WH Smith is closing down and we wish their staff well.

"Our visitors can be assured that we will continue to work closely with existing and new brands to deliver the great mix of stores, leisure and entertainment that they expect, with outdoor specialist Mountain Warehouse opening just last week and fashion stores Mango and Hobbs both arriving at the end of last year."