Joined by St. Etchen's NS, Kinnegad pupils Niamh Fogarty and Thomas Cahill, Westmeath County Council chairman Mick Dollard cuts the ribbon at the new Tesco store in Kinnegad.

Niamh and Thomas are stars as they open Tesco

Published: Wed 29 Sep 2010, 4:30 PM

Monday last, September 27 was a red letter day in the business life of Kinnegad, as two local schoolchildren had the honour of opening Tesco Ireland’s brand new store.The opening of the store creates eighty new jobs to the east Westmeath town, with Tesco taking advantage of Kinnegad’s Celtic Tiger-era population boom to offer a new shopping experience to local consumers.The massive store - which opens from 8am to 10pm Monday to Saturday, and 10am to 8pm on Sundays - is strategically located near the junction between the M4 and M6 motorways, and hopes to attract business not only from local shoppers, but from traffic travelling east to west and vice versa.The ribbon on the new superstore - which is almost as large as its Mullingar counterpart, offering everything from groceries to clothes to electrical goods - was cut by Westmeath County Council chairman, Cllr. Michael Dollard, and two children from St. Etchen’s National School, Kinnegad.The two local kids, Thomas Cahill (3rd Class) and Niamh Fogarty (6th Class), won a Tesco-run poetry competition run at St. Etchen’s last month, and were whisked to the new store via limousine on Monday morning.Eight other St. Etchen’s kids - Laura Toner, Mirra Nepomuceno, Jake Dornan, Jenny Doyle, Tara Gaborcik, Faolan Ly, Chloe Dullingham and Arabelle Thornley - also won prizes for their poetry efforts.After Cllr. Dollard, Thomas and Niamh cut the ribbon, Store Manager Sally Western welcomed everyone to the new Tesco outlet, which was packed to the rafters with curious shoppers on Monday morning.“To celebrate the opening of Tesco Kinnegad we are happy to sponsor a number of community based projects with the Tidy Towns Committee, the Riverside Resident’s Committee and also provided a new kit for the Coralstown and Kinnegad Ladies GAA Club,” Ms. Western said.Tesco Kinnegad will also be one of the first stores to open with a Community Champion.Sandra Fitzgerald has been appointed to this role, as part of which she will work closely with local community groups, schools, charities, sports groups and environmental groups in the area on projects such as Green Schools, Bag Packs, local fundraisers and WEEE Recycling Days.With an election clearly in the air, the opening of the new Tesco outlet attracted plentiful attention from local politicians. Aside from Cllr. Dollard, three Oireachtas members - Dáil deputies Peter Kelly and Mary O’Rourke, and Senator Camillus Glynn were in attendance.The new store was officially blessed by Rev. Fr. Tom Gilroy (PP, Kinnegad).Over the coming weeks many in store activities are planned at Tesco Kinnegad, including a Family Fun Day on Saturday next, October 2 from 1-6pm which will include face painting, balloon artists and much more.Meanwhile, award winning chef Eugene McSweeney will be in store on Thursday, October 7 from 1-8pm providing cookery demonstrations for customers.Tesco employs over 380 people in its five stores in Westmeath - Baylough Express, Castlepollard, Golden Island, Kinnegad and Mullingar - and over 13,000 people nationally.The company’s stores in Westmeath have raised €4,000 to date for the Tesco Staff Charity of the Year, the Irish Cancer Society.Permission was granted for the 2,700 square metre store at Kinnegad in 2008.