Fresh meat and food-to-go retailer, Crawshaws, has invested £250,000 in a new premises in West Bromwich. When the new store opens in June it is set to create 20 jobs for local people.

The store, opening on the site of former Chinese restaurant Jade Crystal in Dudley Street, will become the group’s 46th store. Launched in Yorkshire in 1954, Crawshaws has grown to become one of the UK’s leading fresh meat and food-to-go retailers, with stores across the Midlands and North of England.

It is currently engaged in a rapid £200m expansion strategy with a target of opening 200 stores and creating 2,500 jobs nationwide by 2022. The company has taken a ten year lease on the 2,600 square feet site in West Bromwich, which will become its fourth, and largest, fresh meat factory shop.

Chief executive of Crawshaws Group, Noel Collett, who is spearheading the expansion programme, has labelled the West Bromwich opening as a “significant economic move” for the firm. Mr Collett joined the group a year ago, after 12 years as Lidl’s chief operations officer, where he was instrumental in growing the discount chain from 200 to 600 stores.

Crawshaw’s West Bromwich store will offer meat at almost half the price of the major supermarkets. All its meat is freshly prepared daily on the premises by qualified butchers. The shop will be open to the public seven days a week and will have 20 free parking spaces, making it easily accessible for local residents.

The company is committed to recruiting within the region and the store is still looking for people to be part of the rapidly growing company. 85 per cent of its butchers are trained in-store and 70 per cent of its managers are trained and promoted within the business.

The new shop is due to open mid-June at Unit 2, 41 Dudley Road, West Bromwich.

Has your Sandwell-based business got good news to share? Email think_sandwell@sandwell.gov.uk with your updates.