New-look store at heart of community

Children from Billingborough, Pointon and Horbling primary schools were among the guests of honour, cutting the ribbon to re-open the Co-op on Friday, following a £415,000-plus makeover to transform and modernise the store with an increased range of fresh foods and meal ideas.

Located in the village High Street, the retailer also introduced its new membership scheme where Co-op members receive a five per cent reward on purchases of own-branded products, with a further one per cent going to customers’ choice of three local causes. For the first six months these will be Billingborough Village Hall, Ruby Hunt Trust and Three Counties Dog Rescue.

The village hall was also presented with £250 from Kingfisher Construction, which carried out the re-fit, towards a project to refurbish the hall stage area with new lighting and curtains.

David Barlow, from the hall committee said: “We want to bring more live entertainment into the rural community and this money will help. We have a pantomime, Aladdin, in January and it is great the Co-op is supporting a community asset.”

The new-look store will increase its opening hours to 6am-10pm and has created three new jobs. Community Pioneer, Christine Green, will be working to foster involvement in community activities.

Students in Billingborough with an NUS extra card receive a 10 per cent discount off their groceries.

On re-opening, the store has also become the destination for shoppers taking a courtesy bus from Donington where the Co-op store was wrecked in a ram raid earlier this month. The free mini-bus runs every two hours between 9.30am and 2.30pm from Donington Market Place.