MANAGER of Waitrose John Webb is speaking from experience when he says the new store in Okehampton will have a very positive effect on the town.

An employee of the firm for 35 years, Mr Webb has seen towns start to prosper because Waitrose has made them destinations to shop.

'I have worked as manager in Wallingford for the last 23 years and I have never found that people just shop in Waitrose and then go away again,' he said.

'People often travel 40 or 50 miles to shop with us and they make a day of it.'

Mr Webb said the store was not like a huge out-of-town one that sold additional items such as electrical goods and clothes, hence draining the trade for small town centre shops.

'We concentrate on fresh high quality food and send people elsewhere for their other goods,' he said. 'The fact that we have no coffee shop is deliberate — we want to make sure everything works for the town.'

Monmouth was a prime example of where a Waitrose had played a part in helping to regenerate the town, he said.

'There were a lot of empty shops in Monmouth and people were going elsewhere because there was not much there to attract them in from the surrounding villages and smaller towns.

'When Waitrose opened, people started making Monmouth a destination to shop. Waitrose has not turned the town around but it has stopped the decline and started to pull it back up.'

National chains such as Boots had grown in size and a lot of the independent shops offering a good service had done really well, said Mr Webb.

The manager is confident the people of Okehampton will see a marked difference in the number of shoppers in the town after the store opens it doors next Tuesday (March 7.)

'The head office has been receiving several enquiries a day asking when the store is going to open in Okehampton. It's going to have a very beneficial effect on the town.'

Mr Webb is looking forward to the challenge of managing a completely new shop and said he jumped at the chance of taking up the opportunity at Okehampton.

'I am very enthusiastic about launching Waitrose's first South West store and first store of the millennium.'

He said he was 'over the moon' with his new team of employees — a 'lovely bunch of people' who displayed the characteristics of what the store was all about 'honesty and integrity'.

Because there are no shareholders each member of staff is a partner in the company and hence one of the benefits is a share of the profits each year.

Mr Webb said the 180 employees — 80 of whom were full-time — would have a bonus each year that would very possibly be spent in the town.

'People will be booking holidays through the travel agents and treating themselves to new things — it will all come back into the town in one way or another.'

The manager said he felt the employment Waitrose had brought to Okehampton had lifted people's spirits.