I always knew that our 150th anniversary would prove to be a busy year.  What I didn’t realise was just how busy!  The anniversary celebrations are already under way and will prove to be very memorable and great fun.  The team has formed a Committee to oversee the various events throughout 2010 and the ideas to date are very exciting indeed.

We are also about to embark on a major store refit programme.  The first store will be Ely and that will be in the latest Budgens forecourt format.  Our hot food section will be second to none as we are working in partnership with another innovative company.  We will also be reminding customers that we are a 150 year old family business and everyone will leave the site knowing it!! Ely will also become a 24 hour site so customers can enjoy our offer, literally whenever they please!

Slade End will become 24 hour in April shortly followed by a refit from the team at Spar.  Again, a very exciting project

Soham gets a refit in April and will be in the latest Budgens livery.  As an extra offer we will have Butchery and Fresh Fish counters which will be a completely different experience for us as well as our customers!!!

However, the main event of the year will be the opening of our brand new Littleport Service Station in the early summer.  I have designed it as a celebration of Independent Retailing and indeed the project has been called ‘Independence by Design’.

As a company that built traction engines back in the 1800s it’s fair to say, we certainly haven’t run out of steam!!!