Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
Tesco has built a 10,000sq ft store in the space of one week to help customers affected by the floods in Cumbria.
The store is a temporary replacement for the grocery chain’s Carlisle superstore. It was flooded extensively during the recent extreme weather, with waist-high water affecting all of the internal space.
Matt Davies, Tesco UK and ROI ceo said: “We’ve been helping communities across Cumbria following the recent floods and I’m proud of the huge effort made by our colleagues. We’ve been donating food, toiletries and essentials across Cumbria and every store in the region is acting as a drop off point for donations to the recovery effort.
“We wanted to make sure that people in Carlisle were not left without the service that our store provides in the run up to Christmas, and we’ve worked extremely hard to get the temporary store up and running. As well as everyday essentials, the new store will stock a range of festive favourites to ensure customers don’t miss out this Christmas.”
Tesco’s temporary store opened last Friday (December 18) with celebrations and a ribbon cutting ceremony. The store is expected to open fully refurbished in late January.
The retailer has been responding to the crisis by donating food, emergency supplies, toiletries, sanitary products and water to shelters, refuge centres and churches across Cumbria.
The Carlisle Victoria Viaduct Metro store is now a free water station, handing out free 5 litre bottles of clean water to those in need. Tesco has given food and supplies to emergency services personnel, and its distribution network has donated 30 ‘cages’ of supplies to Carlisle’s independent food bank to support the recovery effort.
Colleagues in Tesco’s Workington and Whitehaven stores have been distributing clothing and food door-to-door through local flood-hit communities. In Kendal, Tesco’s Express has been donating water, sandwiches, fruit and toiletries to the community.
Tesco stores across the north of England, from Lincoln to Whitehaven, clubbed together to launch a major toy collection during Saturday December 12 and Sunday December 13 so children who had lost presents during the floods would not be left out this Christmas. Thousands of toys were collected and Eddie Stobarts came to the rescue to transport them all to its Carlisle depot, from where they were donated to communities across Cumbria, including Carlisle.
