The Bradley Stoke Journal

Bradley Stoke’s new Pets at Home superstore will open its doors at 9am today (Friday) at the Willow Brook Centre, followed later by an opening ceremony, when the winner of The Journal’s Pet Idol 2009 competition will make a star appearance.

VIP (Very Important Pet) ‘Albert’, an eleven week old Jack Russell puppy, will join store manager Russell Hardiman-Richards to officially open the new store at 10:30am.

Albert’s owner Kerry Tessler – of Primrose Close, Bradley Stoke – will be presented with a prize of £150 in Pets at Home gift vouchers for winning the keenly contested ’star pet’ competition.

Also attending the opening ceremony will be Beryl Casey from Hedgehog Rescue, who will talk about the work the charity undertakes amongst Pets at Home customers. She will be joined by John Morris and Dave Barker from South Gloucestershire Council, who will be talking to customers about the Three Brooks Local Nature Reserve and the work of conservation volunteers on the site.

Elsewhere, pupils at Bradley Stoke Community School have taken part in a competition to draw their own pets. The winning sketches will be unveiled at the store today and prizes awarded for the best three entries.

Customers are invited to enjoy the opening celebrations taking place at the store on Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th November. There will be free entertainment for kids, in the form of face painting and balloon modelling, and customers will be able to take advantage of a 10% discount during the store’s opening weekend (terms and conditions apply; see in store for details).

Pets at Home says it has invested over £350,00 in the new store and created 16 local jobs.

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£150 worth of vouchers up for grabs

Pets at Home is looking for a star pet to help open its brand new Bradley Stoke store at the Willow Brook Centre on Friday 6th November.

The pet care superstore has teamed up with the Bradley Stoke Journal to offer one lucky reader the chance to win £150 worth of Pets at Home vouchers.

Readers are invited to send in a picture of their pet and explain why they feel it should be crowned Bradley Stoke Pet Idol 2009!

The winning VIP (Very Important Pet) and its owner will be invited to the Willow Brook Centre on Friday 6th November to officially open the new Pets at Home Bradley Stoke store.

Click here for details of how to enter the competition and win £150 worth of Pets at Home vouchers

Specsavers’ new store at Bradley Stoke’s Willow Brook Centre is set to open on Monday 5th October, according to Centre Manager Scott Lahive.

The opticians group, revealed as a new tenant in July, plans to open in mall unit 4 (to the left of the Carphone Warehouse outlet) on Monday 5th October.

Shopfitters have been working on the inside of the store for the last few weeks and “opening soon” artwork has now appeared on the unit’s frontage.

When open, the new outlet will operate in direct competition with the Tesco Opticians department within the Tesco Extra store that it faces, which has been trading since the Willow Brook Centre opened last year.

Property consultants Alder King have disclosed that Specsavers have taken a ten year lease on the unit, which extends to approximately 1,750 sq ft.

The consultants also say that Pets at Home, also confirmed as new tenants in July,  will “begin the fit out of their new unit shortly”. The pet superstore will operate from unit 5 of the retail terrace, where Brantano is currently the only other trader.

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Bradley Stoke’s first-ever cycle shop is to open on Saturday (15th August) at the Willow Brook Centre.

The Giant Cycles store is a franchise of the Taiwanese company ‘Giant‘, which claims to be the largest manufacturer of bikes in the world.

The store will be operated by ZeroG Cycles of Bedminster, who have three other outlets in the Bristol area.

Doors open at 9am and there will be a draw for a Giant bike worth £500 plus opening offers and “special goings on”.

Elsewhere in the Willow Brook Centre, budget greetings card retailer Card Factory has commenced trading in unit 6b of the mall.

Two more tenants are expected to open in the coming months – Specsavers in mall unit 4 and Pets at Home in retail terrace unit 5.

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Three further stores could open next month (August) at the Willow Brook Centre, Bradley Stoke’s new town centre shopping development.

The town’s first cycle shop, branded “Giant Cycles“, is set to open on Wednesday 15th August according to a source within the owning company, ZeroG.

The sizeable store, on the corner of the main mall building at the Bradley Stoke Way end of the development, was reconfigured several months ago to have additional external entrances.

In answer to reader comments made on an earlier Journal story, the company has confirmed that it will be offering a cycle repair service at the new outlet.

Elsewhere in the mall, fitting out of the new Card Factory store is well advanced. Willow Brook Centre Manager Scott Lahive says the firm is yet to confirm an opening date but it is expected to be “mid to end August”.

Fitting out of the new Specsavers store has also started and the company has already advertised for staff, including Optical Assistants and a Trainee Dispensing Optician.

Over in the new Retail Terrace, the Brantano shoe store opened for business on Wednesday 22nd July, one day later than planned due to an “overstocking issue” the previous day.

Animal superstore Pets at Home, now officially confirmed as a Willow Brook tenant after being revealed months earlier in The Journal, will occupy the remaining “under offer” unit (number 5) in the Retail Terrace. The company recently submitted a planning application for signage at the new store but fitting out is yet to commence.

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