Brand new Sainsbury’s Local on the Warwick Road is opened

Store Manager: “We are happy to open a store in such a nice area”

The brand new Sainsburys Local store on the Warwick Road has opened today with a queue of local people excitedly waiting to explore the new shop.

The ribbon was cut at the official opening at 9am by Banbury’s Mayor, Councillor John Colegrave. Councillor Colegrave said, “I would like to thank Sainsburys for showing faith in Banbury and investing a considerable amount of money in putting this store up, which I’m sure is going to be a great success for the town. Its great to see big organisations like Sainsbury’s backing Banbury and employing people.

“Back in March when all this chaos started there were various sections of the community who stepped up to the plate and did a sterling job. Obviously you’ve got the NHS workers, etc, but also shop workers. Don’t let that be forgotten. Shop workers who manned the tills from day one did a brilliant job and on behalf of the town I’d like to thank them”.

Based next to the new Banbury Chase Development off the Hanwell Fields roundabout, the new store will be open daily from 7am to 11pm. Inside shoppers will find a fresh bakery, a large range of foods, alcohol, seasonal fruit and vegetables and a Costa coffee machine.

Store Manager Vik Patel told Banbury FM the project to get the store up and running had not been easy in the face of a global pandemic. Mr Patel said, “Originally we were opening in July and we’re now in October. It’s been a long journey but its been successful. We’ve opened a shop with 100% availability.

“The customers have been amazing. They’ve been popping in and out of the car park whilst we’ve being doing the work in there”.

The recruitment process for the new store has been completed at a time when the area has seen job losses and people being furloughed. Mr Patel said, “It’s nice to recruit different types of people. We could take people from retail all day, but we’ve got people from all different backgrounds and that’s what’s made it a success.