ABERGAVENNY’s Aldi store re-opened last week after and extensive refurbishment and extension project.

The new format has been created to make shopping even easier for Abergavenny customers, with the store now having more space and clearer signs to make shopping effortless. Fresh bread and cakes have been moved to the last aisle, preventing them from getting squashed under customers’ shopping, and the store will now offer new, easy to browse freezers.

The store will be run by Store Manager Andy Bryon, along with a team of 31 colleagues from the local community. Applications and more information on all vacancies can be found on Aldi’s recruitment website: www.aldirecruitment.co.uk/stores.

Store Manager Andy Bryon said: “The team and I are really looking forward to welcoming back some familiar faces as well as new customers and supplying the local community with the everyday amazing products we have available. Hopefully the new look store will make shopping at Aldi Abergavenny that bit easier and more comfortable.”

What many people may not know if that a leading role in the refurbishment project was played by an Abergavenny man, most people will remember for a very different reason.

Alun Owen is a Abergavenny born former cyclist who represented Wales in the 1994 and 1998 Commonwealth Games in Victoria and Kuala Lumpur but has since found success in a very different field.

Alun, whose father is Abergavenny cycling legend Bill Owen, founded Owen Associates a chartered surveying practice located at 18 Windsor Place, Cardiff, back in 2015 and the firm retains strong links with his home town, where his father ran his own company Owen Construction for many years before his retirement.

In Spring 2017 Owen Associates was appointed to the Aldi Quantity Surveying framework which covers stores from Aberystwyth to Lands End in Cornwall.

Since being appointed Owen Associates has completed over 30 projects with the Pontypool the latest new store to be handed over in the summer of 2022.

“The Abergavenny Aldi is an extension to the existing store which was made viable by Aldi contracting with ATS Euromasters and building a new relocated store for them to enable the extension of the Aldi Car Park and the existing store,” explained Alun.

“We were appointed in October 2017 and through many meetings, design changes and updated cost estimates the project was finally tendered and a start on site for the ATS took place in Jan 2022.

“After successfully completing the new ATS the old ATS building was demolished at the end of June 2022 and the extension to the store commenced.

“We were responsible for tendering the works, making contractor recommendations, appointing all the package contractors, reporting on costs and variations, agreeing the final accounts and making payment recommendations for and on behalf of Aldi.

“We’ve done a lot of work for Aldi, but it was lovely to do something in my home town,” said Alun.