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Shop jobs delight as doors reopen
MORE than 60 jobs will be created when retailer Home Bargains opens up two Fylde branches.
Bosses at the Liverpool-based business have taken over two former Woolworths stores in Blackpool and Cleveleys.
Thirty jobs have been created at Home Bargains' new Victoria Street West store in Cleveleys, which opens on Saturday, while a further 35 will move into its Talbot Road store which opens a week later.
Home Bargains has invested more than 1m in redeveloping the two stores.
Joe Morris, operations director for Home Bargains, said: "Both stores are in prime locations for the business and we are delighted to be bringing more of our stores to the Fylde.
"We already have quite a large presence on the coast and a large customer base here so to open more stores is a big boost to our business and will hopefully help the local economy.
"Everything is in place for the Cleveleys store which opens first on Saturday and the staff have gone through training.
"Many of the staff were laid off by Woolworths so we are pleased to be able to give them employment at a place they already know."
Home Bargains sealed the deals at the former Woolies stores just weeks after the retailer closed a number of its high street branches.
More than 150 people were laid off when one of the UK's most high profile names went into administration last year.
But the majority of the stores left empty by the chain have now been snapped up by smaller retailers looking to expand their empire, plus some of the bigger names capitalising on Woolies' demise.
Its former landmark store in St Annes was taken over by Blackpool-based bargain giant B&M Bargains while Tesco Express took over a store on Clifton Street in Lytham.
The former store on Bank Hey Street is still empty but has been rumoured to have had interest from a number of stores, including Iceland, TJ Hughes and Tesco.
Home Bargains, which is owned by TJ Morris, already has a large store on Tyldesley Road in South Shore as well as one in St Annes Square.
It currently has 170 stores across the UK and plans to have around 500 by 2018.
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Weather for Blackpool
Wednesday 30 May 2012
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