CHRIS Bridgeman will be very much back on home territory when Woolworths opens its new £2.5 million Cwmbran store - the biggest in Wales - on Thursday.

As the store's manager, he looks back on a lengthy stint with the company in Gwent. He worked for Olivers the shoe shop chain in the town centre 12 years ago before being transferred to its Eastbourne branch.

Then the wonder of Woolies beckoned and he trained with the company at its Newport store, later working in Stourport-on-Severn, Ponty-pool, Chepstow and Bristol. "There's been quite a few changes were over the years," he said. "Not overly so but enough to create that little bit extra for customers.

"Shoppers in the valley have their own destinations and don't need to go to Cardiff or even Newport.

"The good thing about Cwmbran is that we have out-of-town-type stores like B&Q and Comet nearby, which bring people in, and everyone benefits. "They are considered to be part of the town centre.

"Our own product range can very much be seen as out-of-town, so people who do not have a car or cannot walk very far can get these things on their doorsteps. "No-one has any reason not to go to Cwmbran. Everything they need is available from household goods to luxury items."

The store has already recruited the 100 staff it needed for Thursday's opening and the company's triumphant return to an expanding town centre. It has had a presence there before as Woolworth's and Woolco.

"The team spirit is unbelievable," said Mr Bridgeman. "Everyone is working as though they have been with us for years.

"We are relishing the challenge because Cwmbran is typical Woolworth territory - an area of working-class people who love what we have to offer.

'The opening is going to be really exciting and we are expecting a phenomenal number of people to be here on Thursday.

"It will be just what Cwmbran town centre needs to take it that extra mile." l Woolworths first opened a store in Cwmbran in the 1960s. It was an enormous success. So much so, that the town centre was one of the locations chosen for a new, much larger, store format called Woolco, which added a hypermarket-size range of groceries to a superstore range of general merchandise. This replaced the original F W Woolworth store in the mid-1970s.

The Cwmbran Woolco was the most successful in the country, proving very popular with customers who appreciated the innovative design and large car park. In 1982, following a management buy-in by Paternoster Stores (now called Kingfisher), a major programme of store disposals was undertaken to simplify the property portfolio and to release funds for investment in other interests.

Kingfisher chose to sell all of the Woolco shop units to Carrefour in early 1984. At that time, the focus was on closures rather than new openings, so despite protests from local people when the Cwmbran Woolco closed, it was not possible to reopen a smaller Woolworth store.

Woolworths is now de-merged from Kingfisher. Following its floatation as an independent company in 2001, the new Woolworths Group plc were quick to secure the Cwmbran site for a new building close to the original stores.

Though not as large as the previous Woolco store, the shop unit is substantially larger than the original F W Woolworth Store in the town.

On offer will be Woolworths favourites in the entertainment, Ladybird, and pick-and-mix ranges as well as items never seen in Woolworths before, such as sports equipment, furniture, a baby shop and clothing from brands such as Peacocks and Gossard. In total there will be 30,000 product lines.