New Berwick Tesco to open doors for business

Sep 11 2010 The Journal

A NEW supermarket is to open in a Northumberland town on Monday.

Tesco is opening its new store at Berwick at 9am, with an official ceremony an hour later.

The 30,000 square foot store at Tweedside Trading Estate will employ 209 staff, with bosses having received 770 applications for those jobs.

At Monday’s ceremony, the company will hand over a cheque for £1,000 to Berwick RNLI, representatives of which will be guests of honour and will cut a ribbon to declare the store open.

Site manager Michael Raper said: “We are all really excited and cannot wait to open our doors.

“My colleagues and I are looking forward to welcoming our customers into the new store and we hope that Tesco will become a key part of the local community.”

Tesco was given outline planning permission by the now defunct Berwick Borough Council in 2005.

That decision was then called in as part of a bigger retail public inquiry, but the Government gave the scheme the go ahead.

Some traders in the town centre have claimed the development, on the outskirts of the community, will reduce their custom.