July 27, 2011 5.15 pm This story is over 152 months old

New Spar opens in Birchwood

Family Spar: The closed petrol station on Birchwood Avenue near the junction of Skellingthorpe Road will reopen as a Spar.

The closed petrol station and convenience store on Birchwood Avenue, near the junction of Skellingthorpe Road, is set to reopen July 28 as a Spar.

The petrol station has been unoccupied since 2008 and the reopening will see 20 new jobs created.

The site has been bought and run by Lincoln-based family butchers D. Hickson, which first opened in 1903. This will be the owner’s third Spar store in Lincoln.

All of the facilities have been replaced and the site has had a complete refurbishment.

Spar are the UK’s leading convenience store group, with a turnover in excess of £2.7 billion. This will be the seventh Spar store in the Lincoln area.

The store will provide groceries, hot and cold food, newspapers and it has a licence to sell alcohol.

Philip Hickson, Co-owner, said: “It will be a great one stop place and I am very excited for the opening.

“With our range of products on site, as well as fuel, the store should give consumers everything they need.

“My father was the man who diversified our business with Spar back in 1976, then I came into the business in the mid-1980’s.

“We saw this store as an opportunity and have had a good history with the Spar franchise. Even though this is the first one of our Spars to feature a petrol station, we haven’t had any complications so far.

“As I also operate a butchers, we package some of our meat and sell it within the store. All of it is locally sourced and fresh.”

Photo: Samantha Fisher for The Lincolnite | Related Report: Lincolnshire Echo