Major investment of £124,500 by Central England Co-op brings a brand-new look to Leicestershire food store
Posted by james brindle | Published: 16/11/2021
A Central England Co-op shop in the Leicestershire village of Rothley has been transformed with an investment of £124,500 giving a boost to the local community.
The food store in Loughborough Road has received a makeover to give it a lighter, fresher feel and includes some exciting new features and ranges for locals to enjoy.
This follows other notable investments in the area in recent months, with over £900,000 spent on transformations of stores across Leicestershire and Rutland including in Leicester, Leicester Forest East, Quorn, Wigston, Lutterworth, Whitwick, Loughborough, Coalville and Oakham.
The Loughborough Road store team were joined by local charity Active Together and their mascot ‘Zoom’ who promotes the Daily Boost which aims to encourage children and young people to do 15 minutes of organised activity at school every day to mark the opening of the new-look store.
The community food store in Rothley has been undergoing the makeover in recent weeks with changes including:
- New product ranges to suit shoppers’ tastes
- Fantastic new food to go section with features such as brand-new Costa Coffee and Tango Ice Blast machines, as well as a new hot food unit
- New self-checkout tills
- Refreshed signage and decoration inside, as well as brand new customer toilet with baby change station
- New bicycle repair station, outdoor seating area, recycling bins and free water tap added outside
Store Manager Paul Stilling said: “The store has had a really big overhaul and we are absolutely delighted with how it has turned out. The new food to go area is a massive improvement and all together it’s really great offer for our shoppers.
“It has been a real boost and something nice for the team who have worked so hard during the last 18 months of the pandemic, it feels like a real reward. It feels like a brand-new store with a much larger entrance area as you walk in making it feel much more spacious and a more pleasant shopping experience.
“It has been lovely to hear such positive feedback from our great community who I would like to thank for their continued support and for their patience while we brought our new look store to life, and I hope they agree with us that it’s been worth it.”
The Loughborough Road Food Store is open every day 7am-10pm. The store has a wide range of products from everyday necessities to something a little more special and also offers a lifesaving defibrillator, cash machine, Lottery, Collect Plus/Paypoint, an instore bakery and a customer car park.
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 and property investment.
Owned by hundreds of thousands of members, its over 7,800 colleagues serve customers across 400 plus trading sites in 16 counties in the East and West Midlands, Yorkshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire.
Its purpose is to inspire communities to create a sustainable Society for all.
It actively campaigns for the Government to increase sentencing for violent attacks on retail workers and works with FareShare Midlands and hundreds of food banks, generating enough food donations to create over 2.1 million meals for people in need.
The Society embraces inclusivity and equality and is a signed-up member to the Business in the Community (BITC) Race at Work Charter, while it is also fully committed to addressing the impact of climate change and is on track to be Carbon Neutral by 2030.
It invests a percentage of its trading profit into local communities through its Community Dividend Fund scheme which has seen over £175,000 shared out between 116 good causes over the past 12 months.
Central England Co-op was named Leading Co-op of the Year by Co-operatives UK in 2021.
Press office contacts: Rob Smyth and James Brindle
Phone - 01543 421390
Email - publicrelations@centralengland.coop