Peter Fletcher (right) and Ali Kurji, Chief Executive of the Society (centre), with Society staff and board members.
THE HEART OF ENGLAND CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY UNVEILS NEW £1.3 MILLION STORE IN LONG LAWFORD
Monday, March 20, 2017
The store, which has served the village for several years, has been rebranded as The Co-operative food.
Built around the old facility, the new store amenity is larger, more modern and greatly improved. As part of the project the Society also demolished an old adjacent house, which it owned, and relocated its tenants to a newly-built property.
The new development has created more space, enabling the store to stock 5,000 lines.
The facility comes with five times more parking – up from four spaces at the Lateshop to more than 20 spaces – including parent and child parking and disabled bays.
Customers are now benefiting from a 3,000 sq ft facility, complete with a wide selection of fresh fruit and vegetables and meat and dairy products, as well as an extensive selection of wines.
Peter Fletcher, General Manager of the Society’s Food Division, said shoppers can look forward to a vastly improved and vibrant new store which will cater for their every need.
He said: “The Long Lawford store has been in the village for many years. There are some 1,500 residents in the catchment area and it is widely used as it is the only facility in the immediate area.
“While for many years the store did fulfil the needs of the village, we knew there was a need to invest and to bring the facility up to scratch to meet modern-day demands.
“It did take some time – largely because the former building wasn’t suitable for extending or renovating – so we had to start again from scratch and literally build around the outside of the old facility, but of course we didn’t want our customers to miss out while the work was ongoing, so we kept the store open.”
Mr Fletcher added: “We are thankful that despite the need for a new store for some time, our customers continued to remain loyal to us throughout. This investment is our way of repaying their loyalty.
“We are hugely excited about our new store and so it seems are our customers. Even while the work was ongoing the feedback from shoppers was full of support and enthusiasm for the scheme.”
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