South Molton supermarket to open tomorrow

dave.tanner@archant.co.uk
20 October 2009

A NEW supermarket will open its doors to shoppers - and 33 new members of staff - in South Molton tomorrow (Wednesday).

The new positions have been created alongside staff who have transferred from the former Somerfield after Sainsbury's bought the New Road store from owners the Co-operative Group in June this year.

The supermarket closed in August to undergo an extensive refit and re-branding and will be officially opened by long-serving colleague Libby Bale at 8.45am.

Libby is a familiar face in South Molton, having spent more than 30 years working in the store when it was a Somerfield.

She said: "I'm delighted to be asked to open the new store and that my time as a colleague has been recognised like this. I can't wait to start working with the new team at Sainsbury's."

The 10,000 sq ft store has a bakery, a cash machine and four self-scan checkouts for customers with only a few items.

Doors will open at 9am and the first customer in store will be presented with a bouquet of flowers by store manager John Lambert.

Mr Lambert said: "We're proud of our new store but the best part of opening is getting to know the local community.

"It's been great meeting new people and we're looking forward to making a positive difference here. We've already started this process by selecting the North Devon hospice as our charity of the year.

"Now we're open, we'll be organising fundraising events and looking at how we can volunteer our time to support the hospice.