PORT TALBOT: New Nisa opens on the Old Gasworks Estate, and hands £500 to the local football club

A new convenience store has opened on the Old Gasworks Estate in Port Talbot, and marked it by handing £500 to a grassroots football club up the road.

Nisa Port Talbot is the first shop for Yugrajvir Singh Bajwa and Parminder Singh, who trade as R&P Convenience Stores Ltd.

The money went to Sandfields Rangers FC, which runs teams for children, adults and disabled players.

Players and coaches turned out for the opening, holding the cheque outside the shop alongside the owners and their family.

Co-op own-brand on Port Talbot shelves

The store stocks Co-op own-brand products, which Nisa shops can carry exclusively among symbol groups.

That covers fresh and chilled lines, food to go, fruit and veg, frozen, and the Irresistible premium range.

Nisa is run by Co-op Wholesale, the business-to-business arm of the Co-op Group, which bought the symbol group in 2018.

“We want to provide local customers with a convenient shopping destination that delivers great value, excellent service and a fantastic range of products,” Bajwa said.

Where the £500 came from

The donation came through Making a Difference Locally, the wholesaler’s own charity.

Every Co-op own-brand product a Nisa retailer buys through the wholesale business carries a built-in donation, which builds up in a fund the shopkeeper can then give away. Stores can add to it with collecting tins and clothing banks.

Retailers choose the cause themselves, and it has to be within 10 miles of the shop.

Kate Carroll, social value lead at Co-op Wholesale, said the owners had picked Sandfields Rangers because “they know how important its work is in this community”.

The charity says it has raised £20m for good causes across the UK since 2008.

One of nearly 4,000 shops

Phil Howell, regional development manager at Co-op Wholesale, said it had been “brilliant to see the store officially open its doors to the local community”.

Nisa was founded in 1977 as the Northern Independent Supermarkets Association. It now supplies around 1,400 independent retailers running close to 4,000 shops across the UK.