Home improvement and garden retailer Bunnings has opened its 10^th UK  Warehouse store, taking over the former Homebase outlet on Edinburgh Way in Harlow today. It is Bunnings' second site in Essex, with Basildon opening on October 10.

The new opening has created over 25 full and part time jobs at the 78,000sq ft store, which stocks more than 30,000 home improvement and garden products and boasts a garden centre. Other services include paint mixing, key cutting, timber cutting and in-store DIY Workshops.

As with all of the new Bunnings’ openings to date, the store’s team members have been helping with projects in the Harlow area. These included building a new memorial garden for children at the Holy Cross Catholic Primary Academy and giving the Harlow Cricket Club entrance a refresh by adding plants, bark chips and solar lights.

Harlow complex manager Joanne Broadhurst said: “All our team members have worked really hard to get the store ready for opening and have undertaken many hours of training to make sure we have the expertise to help customers with home or garden projects.”

With each opening, a celebrity or inspirational personality is invited to join a welcome breakfast. At Harlow this morning former England footballer Wayne Bridge addressed the team.

The store will host two weekends of events on November 4-5 and 11-12 November with activities including Bunnings’ famous Sausage Sizzle.

Having acquired Homebase in February 2016, Australian retail giant Wesfarmers, which owns the Bunnings business, has set out plans to open 20 UK locations under its Bunnings Warehouse format by the end of the year.

It's latest new opening was in Worle in Weston-super-mare last month and stores yet to open include Basingstoke, Chichester, Rochdale, and Rotherham.

The company also operates as Homebase out of 251 trading locations