Central England Co-operative officially opens its new store to support community in Beeston creating more than 20 new jobs

Posted by james brindle | Published: 15/05/2020

Central England Co-op has officially opened its new store in Beeston creating more than 20 new jobs and investing over £600,000 in the local community.

The Society today officially opened its new store, which forms part of the Charterpoint Group development in Wilmot Road, Beeston, offering the local community food and essentials on their door step.

The store features a full range of products, a free water refill station, phone charging area, customer toilet and customer car park.

A food bank collection point has also been installed to support the great work of the Hope Nottingham Food Bank as it continues to manage the increased demand caused by the Coronavirus outbreak.

To mark the launch, Store Manager Ashley Carter made special donations of essential food and toiletries to Hope Nottingham and to the High Street Community Hub, based near the new store, which has been delivering food parcels to vulnerable residents during these uncertain times.

In line with the latest Government guidance, the store has a range of social distancing measures in place which customers will be asked to adhere to, as well as other measures designed to keep everyone safe such as checkout screens and gloves, visors and hand sanitiser for colleagues.

Wilmot Lane Central England Co-operative Store Manager Ashley Carter said: “It is great to finally open our doors to the local community as the team have been desperate to support our neighbours and ensure they can access food and essentials during the pandemic.

“All of us here at Wilmot Lane are proud to be part of such a great community in Beeston so we are delighted to be able to offer support to organisations like Hope Nottingham and the High Street Community Hub which are offering a lifeline to vulnerable residents and people struggling in these testing times.

“I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank local residents for their patience. It has been long-awaited, but hopefully everyone will enjoy the store as much as we do.”

The Wilmot Lane Co-operative food store is open from 7am to 10pm, Monday to Sunday.

The store offers a wide range of products from everyday necessities to something a little more special.

This includes fresh fruit and vegetables, an in-store bakery offering breads and pastries, chilled beers and wines, fresh and frozen product, Irresistible product ranges, as well as a great selection of food to go.

It also offers Lottery, Paypoint and Collect Plus, while a lifesaving defibrillator has also been installed.

Central England Co-op is currently offering a 10% discount for all NHS workers to say thank you for their efforts working on the frontline to help tackle the Coronavirus.

All NHS workers visiting the new store in Wilmot Lane have to do is show their ID card to receive 10% off all food and other essentials and to get priority access by moving to the front of any external queue when waiting to enter.

Notes to editors

About Central England Co-operative

Central England Co-operative is one of the largest independent retail co-operative societies in the UK with interests in food, funeral, floral, travel and property investment.

Co-operatives have always been there for their communities; they were formed to protect them and help them flourish. Our 7,900 colleagues serving our Members and customers work hard to ensure that co-operative values, principles and spirit flow through everything we do to help support and improve our local communities.

Owned by hundreds of thousands of Members, we have over 430 trading outlets across 16 counties including West Midlands, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire. 

We are proud of our reputation for ethical business practices and corporate responsibility.

We invest a percentage of our trading profit into local communities through our Community Dividend Fund scheme, have donated over £1.3 million to our corporate charity partner Dementia UK and also operate a pioneering food redistribution partnership with FareShare Midlands so unsold food goes to those in need.

Visit www.centralengland.coop for more information or follow us on Facebook or Twitter using @mycoopfood

Press office contacts: Rob Smyth and James Brindle

Phone - 01543 421390

Email - publicrelations@centralengland.coop