A new £600,000 supermarket will be coming to Sutton-on-Sea according to The Co-op. The store will be built where the petrol station and car wash were located on Station Road and the Co-op believes the investment will bring 25 new jobs to the area. Work on the site was confirmed to have started this week although the planning permission was acquired back in 2014.
Co-op’s spokesperson said that they were happy to be making an investment of this significance in Sutton-on-Sea. The store is scheduled to open in 2017 and will come with a store that will be selling fresh foods of the health variety, takeaway meals and also award-winning chilled wines and dishes. The spokesman added that they were expected the introduction of the store to reduce the prices of more than 1000 everyday items including bread, vegetables and fresh fruit.
There will be a 10% discount off groceries for Sutton Students with NUS extra cards. The Co-op is also keen to give back to the community and will be appointing one of their employees at the food store to act as a Community Pioneer. The Community Pioneer’s job will be to find ways of getting involved in activities taking place locally such as charities, fundraisers and school events and volunteering.
The spokesman stated that the aim of the retailer was to make the store a hub for the local community and they were looking forward to the chance to make a contribution to the community while improving life in the locality. The Co-op deal was confirmed within a week of WHSmith coming to Sutton-on-Sea.
The Co-op’s brand has been focused on retail food in the UK. The company has more than 4000 outlets and has a market share of 6.6% in the UK grocery market. No other retailer in the UK has a geographical spread as big as the Co-op which has a store in every Postal region. Most of the products found in Co-op stores are sourced via the Co-operative Retail Trading Group. The company has several product ranges. Those labelled ‘Co-op’ are the standard brand range while ‘Irresistible’ focuses on premium food and drinks. The Free From product range focuses on consumers with food allergies. A number of the products sold by the Co-op have won awards in recent times including their Fairtrade Mild Chocolate with Butterscotch being sold under their ‘Truly Irresistible’ brand.