New South Molton Sainsbury's open for business

A NEW supermarket has opened its doors to shoppers - and 33 new members of staff - in South Molton today (Wednesday).The new positions have been created alongside staff who have transferred from the former Somerfield after Sainsbury s bought the New Road

A NEW supermarket has opened its doors to shoppers - and 33 new members of staff - in South Molton today (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 was officially opened by long-serving colleague Libby Bale, a familiar face in South Molton, having spent more than 30 years working in the store when it was a Somerfield.

Helping Libby perform the ribbon-cutting duties was store manager John Lambert, who presented the supermarket's first customer with a bouquet of flowers.

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."

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