SUPERMARKET chain Morrisons is to create 250 jobs by opening a store in Hadleigh.

The retailer will share the site currently occupied by Buyright and hopes to open by the start of next year.

QD Stores, which owns the Buyright brand, will remain at the location and build a new 20,000 sq ft store, due to open in July.

Justin Farrington Smith, managing director of QD Stores, insisted there would be no job losses as a result of the redevelopment, which will also create a further 480 car spaces. He said it was unclear at this stage what branding the store will carry but that it would include a garden centre.

He added: “We have traded at that site very successfully for a number of years and we need to take it on to the next stage.”

Mr Farrington Smith said the company looked at redeveloping the site itself before deciding to speak with other commercial operators. Asked if one of those operators was Tesco – which has been fighting to open in Hadleigh for the last two decades – he said: “I’m not going to comment on who we spoke to but we feel Morrisons are the best partner. Their customer base and customer ethics are very similar to ours.”

A spokeswoman for Morrisons said: “We have reached an agreement to purchase part of the Buyright store in Hadleigh for redevelopment to build a 50,000 sq ft Morrisons and hope to open by the start of next year. We look forward to bringing the Morrisons offering to the Hadleigh area in the near future.”