Residents in Royal Wootton Bassett welcomed the grand opening of Morrisons supermarket on the High Street on Monday.

The new convenience store, called Morrisons M local, has created 20 jobs.

Store manager Frank Stevens said: “It was a real privilege to have some very special people here to help us officially open our store.

“The team have worked really hard to get the store ready so it’s fantastic to be getting great feedback from customers already.

“The Food to Go section is a real hit and customers seem to love our fresh fruit and veg. Our store is focused on fresh food which we’re sure people will love.

“We want the store to be part of the community – our community noticeboard can be used to help promote local events so we’d encourage our customers and local businesses to come in and use it.”

Hazel Newson, chairman of the Royal Wootton Bassett Business Association, said: “We’re just delighted that Morrisons chose Royal Wootton Bassett. Hopefully it will add to the local economy, and it’s nice not to have an empty shop on the High Street. They’ve clearly worked hard and it looks nice too.”

The new store was opened by Colin Gordon, assistant director operations (South) for the Royal British Legion, who offered Mr Stevens a coin of the realm to wish the store luck.

The supermarket chain, which with more than 450 stores is one of the UK’s biggest food retailers, believes it has spotted a gap in the market for a convenience store.

Morrisons is the only British supermarket to have its own food processing sites, abattoirs and even a farm.

It employs expert livestock buyers to pick animals straight from the farmer and makes almost a quarter of the food sold in stores itself, with control over the supply chain and more than 6,000 fully trained crafts people including butchers, bakers, fishmongers and cheesemongers.

The store will open daily from 6am to 11pm.