Major investment transforms Leicestershire village food store with new look

The ribbon has been cut on a revamped Central England Co-op store in Leicestershire which has been transformed with a major investment to create a more modern and sustainable food store for the local community.

The food store in High Street, Kibworth has been refreshed with a new look and new customer offering to create a contemporary store to meet the shopping needs of customers and members.

The investment in the store has seen changes including:

· New features inside such as zero-waste refill stations, one offering products such as cereals, coffee, pasta, rice and dried fruit, and a liquid refill station offering products such as shampoo, conditioner and washing up liquid. As part of a partnership with Fieldfare there is also ‘scoop your own’ frozen ingredients including a range of items such as pastries, Yorkshire puddings, Cornish pasties and fish cakes, all part of long-term efforts to cut down on plastic packaging and waste

· All new eco-friendly refrigeration and lighting, a recycle station and free water refills

· New self-checkout tills and kiosk, a new food to go section with hot food, Tango Ice Blast, and Insomnia Fairtrade Coffee, an iSqueeze freshly squeezed orange juice machine machine and new customer toilets with baby changing facilities

· New product ranges, including newly sourced local produce

· Improvements externally including an improved car park with wider parking spaces, updated signage and a free bicycle repair station and seating for the local community

To mark the launch and Central England Co-op’s Easter Food Bank Appeal which begins next week, Kibworth Store Manager Sunni Stewart invited The Well Kibworth to be part of the celebrations to highlight their work and make a special donation of vital food and essentials.

She said: “It has been such an exciting day to finally unveil our brand new look and we are all so thrilled that this store has been chosen for such a significant transformation which offers our customers and members a much-improved shopping experience and some great new ranges and features.

“We were really happy to welcome The Well at Kibworth down to the relaunch as we’re proud to support their fantastic work and we wanted to highlight that we have a collection point in store where people can drop in donations. It was also a pleasure to make a donation from the store of some of their most needed items right now ahead of our Easter Food Bank Appeal starting.

“I’d like to thank our fantastic community in Kibworth for their patience while the work has taken place to bring this transformation to life. I hope now they’ve seen the end result they will agree with us it has been worth it.”

The High Street Store is open from 8am to 9pm, Monday to Saturday, and 10am to 4pm on 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 and Irresistible and Fairtrade product ranges.

There is also Lottery, Paypoint, Collect Plus and foreign currency, a free cash machine and a lifesaving defibrillator for the local community.