Hobbycraft, the UK’s largest arts and crafts retailer, is pleased to announce the opening of its store in Thurmaston Shopping Centre, Leicester, on Wednesday 7th July.
To celebrate this new store, Hobbycraft is also hosting a grand opening event on Saturday 10th July at 9.00am, with product offers and exciting activities, including free goody bags to the first 100 customers.
Hobbycraft Leicester will create 20 new jobs in the local area and is currently searching for the best crafting experts to inspire customers to get creative to fill the roles. These roles offer the Leicester community the opportunity to work for the fourth Best Big Company to work for in the UK and the third Best Retail Company to work for in the UK, accolades that Hobbycraft were awarded in May 2021 by Best Companies.
Store Manager, Mark Bridgestock comments: “After a tough year for many, we are really looking forward to opening the doors to our Leicester store and sharing our passion for arts and crafts with the local community. We have seen more people than ever take up crafting during the COVID-19 pandemic and we want to encourage locals to come down to their new store and shop with us safely. After working at Hobbycraft for 8 years, we truly put our customers at the heart of everything we do and look forward to providing Leicester customers with the ultimate retail experience, combined with fantastic crafting products at great prices.”
The safety and wellbeing of Hobbycraft’s colleagues, customers and communities remains the top priority and the Leicester store will open in line with government guidelines, with social distancing and extensive safety measures including:
- A queue management system outside the store with social distancing markers
- A dedicated colleague will be appointed as door monitor to manage entry
- A limited number of customers allowed in store at any time, operating with one customer per aisle
- Two metre social distancing markers throughout the store
- A ‘sanitisation point’ on entry where customers are able to clean hands, baskets and trolley handles
- Checkout colleagues will be screened and appropriately spaced
- Customers are recommended to make contactless card payments – and the limit has been increased to £45
- All colleagues will be supplied with PPE including face visors, masks and gloves and all areas will have upweighted cleaning regimes
The Leicester store will offer customers a wide range of crafting products and will also have a dedicated Custom Crafting area. Custom Crafting is a new inspirational crafting area that introduces the digital personalisation Cricut tool to customers. The space is designed to inspire shoppers as well as encourage them to try out products and crafting techniques. The retailer launched the areas as a trial in early 2019 and it was such a hit Hobbycraft are now installing a Custom Crafting area is all of their new stores.
The new Leicester store will be open Monday to Friday 9.00am to 8.00pm, Saturday 9.00am to 6.00pm and Sunday 10.30am to 4.30pm.