Schoolchildren’s delight as their special artwork takes pride of place on brand new Central England Co-op Food Store in North Warwickshire

Posted by james brindle | Published: 07/05/2021

A group of schoolchildren in North Warwickshire have visited a brand-new food store to unveil a special piece of artwork they created which now adorns the shop.

The Central England Co-op Food Store just off the A5, Watling Street, in Grendon, Atherstone, which opened its doors in December creating 12 jobs, welcomed children from nearby Woodside C of E Primary School to see the artwork they had worked hard to create displayed on the new store.

Entitled ‘Special Landmarks in our Community’ the artwork has been produced by pupils at the school to create a focal point at the new store which resonates with the local community.

Headteacher Awen Simpson said the school held a competition to give all the pupils the opportunity to have their artwork picked for the final design.

She said: “All of the children at Woodside took part in creating artwork to depict their local community, thinking about what landmarks stood out and what the local community meant to them.

“They all enjoyed the task and the children whose artwork was chosen to be displayed outside our new local Co-op were absolutely thrilled to see it on view for everyone to see. “The competition helped the children to reflect on their community and to see that there is a purpose in the work they produce in school and that it is valued - often by a wider audience than just school staff and visitors too.”

The new store is on the site of the former Boot Inn public house in the village and includes self-scan till points, a bicycle repair station, customer car park, free hot and cold water refill station, phone charging area and a customer toilet with baby changing facilities.

For Store Manager Lee Mullis, building links with the community has been vitally important and therefore having a permanent feature created by the local school as part of the store made him particularly proud.

He said: “We have had such a wonderful welcome from the community in Grendon since we opened the store before Christmas and are so proud to be a part of a great local community.

“I am delighted to be able to display the fantastic piece of artwork created by children at Woodside Primary School on landmarks which mean a lot to the community, and it gives all the team a boost to see it every time they come to work.”

James Knight, Member and Community Relations Officer at Central England Co-op, worked with the school to get the artwork produced and presented them with their own print of the finished design to display in the school.

He said: “I want to thank Mrs Simpson and all the children for helping us with this wonderful piece of artwork and it has been a great way to build the relationship between the school and the store.

“We are looking forward to working with the school and the local community in Grendon more and more in the future.”

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

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.

Press office contacts: Rob Smyth and James Brindle

Phone - 01543 421390

Email - publicrelations@centralengland.coop