WORK to extend and refurbish Sainsbury’s Redditch store is due to start on July 28 and is expected to be completed towards the end of November.

The store will remain open during the multi-million pound work, apart from the final week before the store welcome customers back in.

Sainsbury’s will be adding a single storey extension to the store which will accommodate a customer restaurant, toilet facilities and a new Explore Learning centre offering tailored English and maths tuition for five to 14 year olds while parents shop at the store.

Customers have told Sainsbury’s what improvements they would like to see in the car park. As a result, the car park will be changed to improve vehicle and pedestrian movement as well as moving the position of disabled and parent and child spaces, and providing additional cycle hoops.

Tim Smedley, store manager, said the investment will make a real improvement to customers’ shopping experience. He said: “We’ve been serving local people since the store opened 25 years ago and this refurbishment and extension is a great opportunity to bring people an even better shopping experience. It will provide the people of Redditch with a greater range and I’m sure the new Explore Learning drop-in centre will be popular amongst youngsters and parents.

"We will be open throughout the majority of the work and continuing to provide great service to our customers.”

Ahead of the work starting, Sainsbury’s will be hosting a public drop-in session for local people on Wednesday, July 16in the store café between 3.30pm and 7pm to find out about how the work will be carried out.

Members of the construction team will be available to discuss the work on the store and answer any questions.

Some of the internal work will need to be carried out at night and there will be some work on the car park at weekends. Base Build, the contractors carrying out the work, are members of the Considerate Constructors Scheme, a voluntary scheme that commits construction teams to both minimising any disruption and leaving long-lasting benefits for local communities.

For further information about the work, contact Sainsbury’s community relations team on 0800 130 3270 during normal working hours or email redditch@sainsburys.co.uk.