South Wales Evening Post - 15 June 2006
Swansea is getting a jobs boost with 140 new positions on their way to the city. The old Littlewoods store in St Mary's Square is to become a new, larger Primark store, creating an extra 90 posts.
The new-look store will open its doors on August 24.
And NTL/Telewest is creating 50 jobs at its Swansea call centre on the Enterprise Park.
The vacancies, which have been advertised, are for faults management representatives.
The new Primark store is a boost for the city centre, coming after the closure of David Evans.
Store manager Elwyn Owen said the company had made a £5 million to £6 million investment in refurbishing and kitting out the new store.
The investment follows news that entrepreneur Roy Thomas paid £5 million for the Marks & Spencer building lease earlier this month. The new positions at Primark will be mainly part-time.
Mr Owen said: "We are looking at 90 new positions.
"A lot of them will be weekend positions because that is where we see the extra trade.
"The biggest thing customers will notice is the sheer size.
"It will be four times the size of our current store in Oxford Street.
"We can basically trade to the standard that Primark would be happier with.
"We have 10 tills at the moment, the new store will have 27. We have five fitting rooms, the new store will have 26.
"In store you can double the range of items we have now. The fashion content will be very much higher.
"We have a very small household department at the moment and that will also extend quite a lot."
Some of the Primark vacancies are being filled at a recruitment open day at the Dragon Hotel, Kingsway Circle, on Friday, June 23, from 9am to 6pm.
Application forms are available at local JobCentres.
Mr Owen said the new store confirmed the company's commitment to Swansea city centre.
The NTL vacancies are paying £12,000 a year.
A company spokesman said: "We are looking to recruit at least 50 enthusiastic people
