BENTALLS departmental store in Tonbridge will lose its name under a proposed £5.7 million deal.

If the sale goes ahead, the store, located in the Angel Centre and which has traded under the Bentalls name for many years, will be re-named Beale.

The new store would concentrate on upmarket shoppers aged 35 and over. The Tonbridge store is one of three stores Beale plc intends to buy from Bentalls, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fenwick.

The purchase, to be put to shareholders at a meeting today, would boost the number of Beale stores to 12.

Beale said the benefits of the takeover would not be felt for some time because of the cost of bringing premises, staff, stock and systems into line. However, it expected the new stores to make a "positive contribution" in the next financial year.

The three stores together generated nearly £26 million in sales in the year ending January, 2001. Beale plc had a turnover of more than £78 million last year, with pre-tax profits of £3.83 million.

It was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1995 and operates nine department stores in Bedford, Bolton, Bournemouth, Kendal, Poole, Southport, Walton-on-Thames, Winchester and Yeovil.