A NEW shop, specialising in branded health, home and beauty products has opened its doors to Thornbury.

Savers, which has more than 400 stores across the UK, offering a wide range of products at low prices, officially opened its new store in St Mary Centre this morning.

Occupying the shop space in the Arcade previously held by Card Bar and Thorntons, Savers has been under redevelopment for several months, with the new store now open for business.

Graham Johnson, Savers sales operations director, said he was very excited for the store to open and that there was ‘a great opportunity’ to trade in Thornbury.

“We are really pleased to be here," he said. "With so many stories in the news of shops closing down, especially on high streets, we hope to be a good news story for the town, and hope to attract even more people and businesses to start trading in the area too.

“We are looking to open 30 to 40 stores each year over the coming few years and Thornbury is the kind of town we want to be a part of.

“It’s good to see so many people out and about, we are hopefully it is going to be a successful opening day and first week.”

Cutting the ribbon to formally open the store to the public was Thornbury’s deputy mayor, Cllr Angela Symonds.

“Savers is a welcome new addition to the town,” she said, “offering more choice to our residents and plenty of new employment.”

During the opening, a cheque for an incredible £94,000, raised by Savers staff was presented to the firm’s charity of the year Marie Curie.

Natalie Garland, South West fundraising manager for the terminal illness care and support charity, said that the donation was ‘amazing’ and that it would make a huge difference to the work they do.