Ahead of starting work on a new retail development in Rustington, Barr Construction has teamed up with Sainsbury's and the Arun Business Partnership to engage local contractors keen to be involved in the project.

The trio hosted an event at Haskins Garden Centre this month to inform local companies of what contracts would be available during the build of a new store-on-stilts to replace the existing Sainsbury’s supermarket at Rustington Retail Park, West Sussex.

Over 70 attendees engaged with Barr at the event, across a range of trades including scaffolding, tiling, joinery and bricklaying.

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Ruairi Magee, project manager at Barr Construction said: "The Rustington suppliers' evening was a great success and it was terrific to see so many companies and individuals coming along to express an interest in the opportunities available through this project.

"We have a policy of using local companies and labour wherever possible and the suppliers’ event has allowed us to make contact with subcontractors from across the industry.

"We are looking forward to welcoming some of these local subcontractors to the Rustington Sainsbury’s project and would like to thank Arun Business Partnership and Haskins Roundstone Garden Centre for helping make this event so worthwhile."

The existing supermarket closed its doors for the last time on February 5 and a temporary store has been set up in the former Focus unit on the adjacent retail park. Work to build the new store is now getting under way, with the opening planned for autumn this year.

Daren Carpenter, Sainsbury’s Project Manager said: "As expected, the event was a great success and we were able to meet a lot of useful local contacts. I would like to thank the Arun Business Partnership and everyone that came along to meet us at Haskins."

(GK)