By Fraser Hughes, Evening Times
Supermarket giant Sainsbury's is about to open its biggest
store in Scotland. The shop, next to Braehead Shopping Centre in
Renfrew, is to officially welcome customers from tomorrow.
At nearly 70,000sq ft, it will be almost 10,000sq ft bigger than
its previous largest Scots store - at Cameron Toll in
Edinburgh.
It is also creating 150 new jobs.
Work to re-locate the store from its previous site in Braehead
shopping centre began in June.
Now just five months later the store is nearly complete with
workers busy adding the finishing touches at the former B & Q
warehouse.
Store manager Kevin Cunningham said: "To be opening the biggest
Sainsbury's in Scotland is a real honour and I'm sure that
customers are going to like the breadth of choice available.
"We are particularly proud to be creating new jobs for local
people during a tough economic climate and, as part of our
commitment to career development, we will be working to offer all
colleagues a chance to climb the ladder once we've officially
opened."
The existing store at the shopping centre will close its doors
on Tuesday night.
The new store will feature a wide variety of Scottish products,
many of which represent the world-class reputation for food and
drink that Scotland has to offer. Almost 30,000sq ft of the new
store dedicated to Tu clothing, homeware and electricals.
The new supermarket is one and a half times bigger than Hampden
Park stadium and more than 140 construction workers were involved
in building the store.
Sainsbury's currently has 38 stores in Scotland serving nearly
600,000 customers each week.
Over 1,500 different Scottish products are available in
Sainsbury's stores, 380 of which have been launched in the last
year. Sainsbury's is a huge supporter of Scottish products over
£600m worth sold across the UK every year.
Reproduced with the permission of the Herald & Times
Group.