Central England opens its first store in Lancashire

‘Our Wigan Road store will see us invest in the local economy and create jobs for local people’

Central England Co-operative (CEC) is launching a new food outlet near Leyland this spring. This will be the organisation’s first store in Lancashire, although it has plans for further expansion into the county later this year.

CEC, which currently has 400 outlets in 16 counties, employing 7,800 staff, said the site off Wigan Road in Clayton-le-Woods will be a “modern, sustainable and environmentally friendly community food store”, with self-service checkouts, hot food, an in-store bakery, Costa Coffee and Tango Ice Blast machines, customer toilets and a car park.

Matt Garton, area manager, said he was excited that Central England Co-op will soon be part of the community in Clayton-le-Woods and that the society will be making its first steps into Lancashire with this launch.

“We are excited about our new store in Clayton-le-Woods and for it to be our first food store in Lancashire,” he said.

“We cannot wait to be part of the local community and provide vital food and essentials. Our Wigan Road store will be a vibrant and modern store with some fantastic features and will see us invest in the local economy and create jobs for local people.”

Mr Garton said CEC was now on the lookout for people to take up roles, with store manager and team leader roles available to apply for now and more roles set to be added soon.

“I would urge anyone interested to head to our careers website to find out more about becoming part of Central England Co-operative,” he said.

The co-operative, which runs funeral care, travel, floristry and optometry services alongside food retail, was formed in 2013 following the mergers of Anglia Regional Co-operative Society and Midlands Co-operative Society.