Australian retail giant, Wesfarmers Group has opened a new Bunnings Warehouse in St Albans today – the second of its kind in the town.

The new store on Hatfield Road, St. Albans is the second pilot store in the UK and Ireland since Wesfarmers bought Homebase from Home Retail Group last year and continues the momentum of establishing the Bunnings Warehouse format in the UK’s £38billion-a-year home improvement and garden market.

It follows the successful opening of a 67,000sq ft Bunnings Warehouse on Griffiths Way, St Albans in February and has created another 50 jobs in the local area.

England rugby union legend, Kyran Bracken joined Bunnings  team members in St Albans to celebrate the official opening today.

At 40,000sq ft, the Hatfield Road store occupies a smaller footprint than the first pilot store but will still stock more than 24,000 home improvement and garden products, as well as offering  timber cutting, a garden centre and a café and children’s play area.  A dedicated  tool shop within the Warehouse will feature top brands including Ryobi and DeWalt, and paint mixing from Johnstone's Trade, Crown and Dulux will also be available to customers, supported by a ‘colour wall’ with over 3,000 paint colour tiles.

A third pilot store is set to open in Milton Keynes in coming weeks and will boast the largest retail footprint of the three.  Wesfarmers Group has announced plans to invest up to £500million rolling out the Bunnings Warehouse format in the UK and Ireland over three to five years.

Bunnings Warehouse Hatfield Road Complex Manager Emma Wimble said: “Our team members have worked really hard to prepare the store for opening and we are looking forward to helping customers and the community with their home and garden projects.”

Explaining Bunnings’ strong focus on store’s getting involved with their local community, she added: “We have already helped Sandridge School by tidying up an unused area of land by repainting flower beds and creating vegetable patches so the children can set up a gardening club. And we look forward to doing more with groups in the local area in the future.”