An East Sussex hardware shop that suffered a devastating fire earlier this year is now all set to re-open on Saturday.
The blaze broke out in April at Trend DIY in Eastbourne, destroying the office and severely damaging the stock and shopfittings. Owner Harry Papadopoulos said at the time that he expected the shop to be closed for three months, but in fact when the doors open again this weekend it will be six months to the day.

"There was a delay with the insurers, they were quite slow, and then problems with the builders," Mr Papadopoulos told diyweek.net, "and then we found major problems with the structure. But we're here now, almost ready, and the store is looking fantastic."

Trend DIY has had a complete refit, he went on. "We've now got a new shop front with automatic sliding doors, EPOS installed, new lighting systems and new ceilings. It's all state of the art now," he said.

Nevertheless, Mr Papadopoulos is out of pocket as a result of the fire and the long period of closure. "The insurers don't cover everything, and we keep coming across things we've forgotten to claim for," he said.

"And we won't know until we re-open whether people will come back. But we've had hundreds of people giving us support, our customers and friends. Financially we've suffered, but hopefully we'll make it up over the next few years."

And is he looking forward to getting back behind his counter? "Yes, we can't wait!"