New supermarket to move into Woolworths (From This Is Cheshire)

New supermarket to move into Woolworths

12:00pm Tuesday 25th August 2009 in News By Vicki Stockman

WATCH out Tesco and Asda, a new supermarket being set up in the town is out to give them a run for their money and offer customers something different.

Asco Supermarket’s first store will open its doors in October at the old Woolworths store on Sankey Street.

And the company behind the launch hope to build up a chain from here in Warrington, where they will have their head office based too.

Dave Laney, operations manager for the company, said: “All we are trying to do is offer people a real alternative in their grocery shopping.

“We are going to be using a lot of local suppliers. We have done a lot of research with the people of Warrington, they all feel fairly happy to have an alternative in the town centre to buy their food and groceries.”

The store will be marketed primarily at people shopping little and often and will sell daily essentials like bread, milk and fruit and vegetables as well as a lunch time range, deli counter and butchers and open until 7pm.

With more choice in the town centre it will also mean more jobs too.

“We have got a tremendous relationship with Job Centre Plus we are looking to recruit 60 to 80 people for this store. We are keen to get some people who have been out of work for a while,” he added.

And with expansion plans that will see the next two stores open in Runcorn and St Helens before the end of the year it will see up to 250 jobs to the wider area.

Mr Laney added: “We have plans to open between 25 to 30 supermarket style stores over the next three years particularly in the north of England. As we grow into the middle part of next year our plan is to open more out of town shopping stores.”

And with the new store taking over from a retail giant that saw its end last year, leaving the glass fronted store empty for almost a year.

“It was a good site with lots of shoppers outside, we took a fair bit of time to decide which was going to be our first store and Warrington won because of the footfall. All the people we have spoken to have said it’s what the town really needs,” he added.

Although starting off as the newest shop in a competitive market the company is already looking beyond its first few stores.

So will it soon be rivalling supermarkets like Morrisons?

“In three years time people can make there own minds about whether we are or not but we do have plans to go nationwide. We have already been offered some sites in north London but we are concentrating on keeping our stores service local,” Mr Laney said.

If you would like to find out more about jobs at the store email enquiries@ascostores.co.uk