THERE will be additional retail choice on offer in Inverurie from next week, with the opening of two of the stores at the new Inverurie Retail Park on Oldmeldrum Road.
Next Thursday, June 4, Lidl will open their new supermarket, which will be joined a day later on Friday, June 5, by the Homebase store.
The park developed by Northburn Developments Ltd, based in Northern Ireland and built by Stuart Milne Construc
tion is rapidly nearing completion, with three more stores due to open within the next six to eight weeks.
Halfords and Acorn Pets should be open for business by the end of June, with a mid July opening the target for Argos. Currys have decided to add a showroom mezzanine sales area to their premises at the site, which requires a building warrant, so they hope to be able to open at the end of July or beginning of August.
Preparations are reaching their final stages prior to opening at the Homebase store, with their Investment Delivery Team, who specialise in preparing new stores for operation onsite. They work alongside the locally recruited new management team.
Keith Davis, the Programme Manager, told the Herald: "It takes three and a half weeks to transform an empty shell into a completed store. It is up to my team to kit it all out and stock it all up."
Operating out of the Homebase headquarters at Milton Keynes, Keith and his team, Simon Oles, James Daly and Rich Poleykett, are joined by agency staff recruited locally, such as decorators, so that there are around 35 people working to ensure that the store is ready to open on schedule.
Keith said: "We cover the whole of the country and our first step is to meet the new staff locally. We come in and liase with them and do our bit before we hand over to them and the store opens to the public. We are delighted to be able to bring our new Homebase store to the local community."
Keith stressed that Homebase are keen to integrate closely with the local community and that the company have been delighted with the positive reception they have received. A distinctive feature of the new store will be that the signage features descriptions and directions in Gaelic, alongside English, which Homebase do if they feel it is appropriate for the area, using alternate languages in stores in the Republic of Ireland and in Wales.
Homebase will stock a comprehensive range of kitchens and bathrooms, along with furniture and soft furnishings, DIY and decorating supplies and will also have gardening supplies and homewares.
Supermarket chain Lidl will also celebrate the opening of their latest addition to their North east stores at Inverurie Retail Park next week.
Commenting on the opening of their new supermarket a spokesperson for Lidl said: "Lidl Scotland is proud to announce the opening of our new supermarket in Inverurie Retail Park on Oldmeldrum Road. After nearly a year of planning, community consultation, ground works and construction, we are ready to welcome the local community to their very own Lidl supermarket.
"We are proud to announce that our new store will be launched at 8am on Thursday, June 4, we would be delighted to see as many of the local community there as possible. On the day we will have samples available from across our range, members of Lidl's management will be present to greet you and discuss any questions you have regarding your exciting new store.
"The new store in Inverurie will also be selling a variety of non-food with a series of fantastic opening offers. The opening offers will cover Hi-Tech Electrical items, DIY, household and even more products, many of which are less than half price.
"We are well aware that without the support of local people, whether existing customers in our Aberdeen stores or not, this project would never have got off the ground. We look forward to meeting everyone and serving the local community when our new store opens."
Northburn Developments say they are "delighted" that work is nearly complete at their Inverurie Retail Park development after a long planning and construction stage and are equally delighted that, despite the current economic climate, they have been able to attract top retailers to the site.
Alan Mitchell, Director of Northburn Developments Ltd commented: "Northburn is delighted to have reached completion of the construction phase and is very pleased with the look and feel of the retail park.
"We very much hope that shoppers will appreciated the new national brands that we've worked hard to bring to Inverurie and to be 80 per cent pre-let in such a challenging market is testimony to the strong trading potential these retailers see in this part of Aberdeenshire.
"The opening of the first three stores is a significant milestone and three more stores will be opening over the next six to eight weeks. We're pleased to confirm that both Argos and Currys are committing to further investment in Inverurie with the Argos Extra brand and the mezzanine showroom in the new concept Currys."
