Charity boost as store opens

Bridgnorth’s new Tesco Express store will open on Friday with a boost to a town charity. It will hand over £500 to the League of Friends of Bridgnorth Hospital.

League chairman John Hurst-Knight and other committee members will be guests of honour when the Low Town store opens on Friday.

Mr Hurst-Knight will cut the ribbon to declare the new store open at 10.30am.

Store manager Michelle Walker said: “We are delighted to be able to offer our support to the Friends, who do a fantastic job raising funds for the hospital, and would like to thank everyone joining us on our opening day.

“Myself and all the staff are looking forward to welcoming all our customers into the store.”

Mr Hurst-Knight said: “We would like to thank the new Tesco Express for this kind donation. Without the generosity of the local community we would be unable to continue our support of the hospital.”

The new store on the Cann Hall Bypass will be open from 6am to midnight seven days a week.

* Tesco said today it had made “good progress” over the autumn period as the supermarket giant bucked the gathering gloom in the retail sector.

The UK’s biggest grocery chain posted like-for-like sales, excluding petrol, up 4.1 per cent in the 13 weeks to November 24 - in line with forecasts in the City.

Tesco said food inflation rose by nearly one per cent as a result of higher commodity prices. But non-food - a key area of growth for the group - was seeing prices fall, according to the retailer.

Total company sales rose 11.8 per cent, up from 9.2 per cent in the first half.