Home improvement and garden retailer Bunnings Warehouse officially opened its doors in Walton-on-Thames on 15 March.

The new store, which is on the site of the former Homebase on New Zealand Avenue, is 34,000 square feet and offers customers a wide range of global market-leading brands. Other services include everything from paint mixing to key cutting, a garden centre, timber cutting and in-store D.I.Y. Workshops.

Bunnings’ team members have already been busy ahead of today’s store opening, helping with projects in the Walton-on-Thames area. These included fixing the scout hut guttering for the Walton Sea Scouts and painting planters and repairing shed roofing for students at Walton Oak School.

Walton-on-Thames complex manager, Roy Tripp, 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.”

To celebrate the opening, Kelly Smith, former England footballer is joining a welcome breakfast for team members.

Kelly said: “I’ve had a great time opening Bunnings Warehouse Walton-on-Thames today. Just like football, success is built on strong teamwork and it’s evident that everyone here is committed to making the store a hit.

The store will host two weekends of events on 17-18 and 24-25 March, where customers can enjoy a range of family activities including the famous Bunnings Sausage Sizzle, face-painting, balloon modelling and even join Chase & Skye for a Story Time session.

Bunnings latest store opening was in London's Penge, the first Bunnings store to open after Wesfarmers' announcement of  "a review of Bunnings UK and Ireland (BUKI) has commenced to identify the actions required to improve shareholder returns.”

Since then Wesfarmers has reported a huge loss from BUKI, before interest and tax it reported a loss of £97 million ($165 million) for the half, compared to a loss of £28 million ($48 million) in the prior corresponding period. Revenue for BUKI decreased 15.5% to £517 million (15.7% to $875 million).