DISCOUNT supermarket Kwiksave is getting ready to open a branch in Spalding.
If planning consent is given for the Sheep Market store – which could open from 6am-midnight seven days a week – it will take the place of popular Chinese restaurant China 88 which would move to the vacant upper floor.
Kwiksave Spalding Ltd has applied for a change of use for the restaurant to have a single storey, flat-roofed extension taking up half of the rear yard.
A statement from the firm’s Lincoln-based architects, XL, says: “This area of Spalding is predominantly retail and the proposed new use will fit in well and complement the surrounding businesses.
“It should also bring extra custom into the town centre and create several new jobs.”
China 88 owner Harry Bharwani said he can say more about the plans later this week, but China 88 will go upstairs and Kwiksave will take its place on the ground floor.
He said: “We’re the busiest restaurant in town by far.”
On the planning application form submitted to South Holland District Council, Kwiksave Spalding Ltd gives its address as 12 Sheep Market – the China 88 building – and says it has three full-time and five part-time employees.
It lists proposed employees as five full-time and five part-time.
South Holland District Council is due to make a decision on the application by October 5.
The original Kwik Save chain disappeared from the high streets five years ago but the name was bought by the budget supermarket group, Costcutter, and re-launched as Kwiksave.
The first Kwiksave opened in a village near Bolton in April this year, followed by three elsewhere and Kwiksave Spalding Ltd is “among another half dozen in the pipeline”.
Costcutter spokesman Simon Brown said: “We are still a good few months away from it being complete and doors opening.”
Branches are run as franchises by independent retailers and Costcutter bosses are hoping Kwiksave – described as an “iconic brand” – will once again be a familiar name across Britain.
Mr Brown said: “It has been very well received by independent retailers as a brand they want their stores to be part of.”