Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
Bunnings Warehouse officially opened its doors in the West Sussex city of Chichester yesterday (Thursday January 4), creating over 20 full and part time jobs.
The 80,000sq ft store, which is on the site of the former Homebase in Discovery Park, stocks more than 30,000 home improvement and garden products from a wide range of brands. Other services include paint mixing, key cutting, a garden centre, timber cutting and in-store DIY workshops.
Bunnings’ staff have been busy ahead of the store opening, helping with projects in the local area. These include painting the building and cleaning a decking area for Aldwick Royal British Legion, and raising flower beds for the Apuldram Centre.
Chichester complex manager Damon Kemp said: “All our team members have worked really hard to get the store ready for opening and have undertaken many hours of training to make sure we have the expertise to help customers with home or garden projects.”
To celebrate the opening, double Olympic gold-winning sailor Sarah Ayton OBE joined a welcome breakfast for staff. She said: “I had a great time opening my local Bunnings Warehouse and meeting the team members. I’m sure the store will be a huge success.”
The store will host two weekends of events on January 6-7 and January 13-14, where customers can enjoy a range of family activities including the famous Bunnings Sausage Sizzle, face-painting, balloon modelling and even meeting characters from children’s animated TV series Paw Patrol for a story time session.
Bunnings is a leading retailer of home improvement and garden products in Australia and New Zealand which acquired Homebase for £340 million in February 2016. It plans to invest
a further £500 million in building a new Bunnings Warehouse business in the UK and Ireland over a five-year plus timeframe.
