Food store refit creates home for post office

Customers will benefit from a £250,000 refit of Saxilby Food Store which will also create a new home for the village’s post office.

The Lincolnshire Co-op store on High Street is getting a fresh look with more chilled and hot food to go and a deli to go range all joining the existing instore bakery.

Saxilby Post Office will also move into a newly-created space inside the store, just a five-minute walk away from its current premises at 39 High Street.

Opening times for the post office will increase as a result of the move.

Wayne Dennett, Post Office Group Manager for Lincolnshire Co-op said: “We’re delighted that our refurbished Saxilby Food Store will include a new home for Saxilby Post Office.

“Post offices provide vital services for many people, so we’re really pleased that it will continue to serve Saxilby from a dedicated space within the store.

“As a co-operative we invest our profits back into communities and one way of doing this is making sure people can access important services like these.”

Saxilby Food Store will stay open during the refurbishment, which will finish by Friday 31st March.

The current post office will close at 5.30pm on Thursday 30th March and reopen at on Wednesday 5th April inside Saxilby Food Store at 107 High Street.

Staff members from Saxilby Post Office will also move across to the new location, apart from current Postmistress Kate Elkington who will run a retail shop called The Willow Tree in the existing space.

It will stock cards, gift wrap and stationary and could expand to sell gifts, homeware and electricals.

She said: “It will be sad to see the post office go from its current location as it has been here for many decades, but I’m really pleased that Lincolnshire Co-op has stepped in so we don’t lose such a vital service from the village.

“There are four members of staff here, they will be going across with the post office to its new location.

“They are familiar faces for lots of people in Saxilby, including elderly people living in and around the village. I am hoping that our customers will continue to support it.”

The refurbished Lincolnshire Co-op food store will also do more for the environment with a new heat reclamation system for its fridges. It will work by reclaiming heat usually lost during the refrigeration process and using it to keep the store at a good temperature.

Selected post office products and services will also be available from the food store tills for nearly 40 hours outside of Saxilby Post Office’s opening times after the move.