First Cambridgeshire East of England Co-op opens its doors to customers in Waterbeach

The East of England Co-op, which has over 120 Food stores across Suffolk, Norfolk and Essex, has opened its first Cambridgeshire Food store in its 150-year history, in Waterbeach.

The member-owned co-operative has donated over £1 million to good causes in East Anglia over the last three years through its Community Cares Fund which supports groups that have a positive impact in their local community. When the next round of funding launches, grants will be available to communities across Cambridgeshire for the first time. 

Branch Manager, Damian Johnson said: “Having met lots of people in the community over the summer, it’s been exciting to finally be able to open our doors to them.  

“At our co-op we take care to get to know and support the people living near our stores, so I’m pleased to share that we’ll be kicking off our support in Waterbeach by sponsoring the under 11s football team, Colts FC for its next season. 

“I can already see this is going to be a lovely village to be part of and me and my team have loved hearing from residents about how pleased they are to see our co-op opening here.”  

To celebrate the opening of the new 3,000 square foot store, the first 50 customers to arrive picked up a free breakfast showcasing some of the store’s facilities: a hot drink from the Costa Coffee machine or a fresh orange juice from iSqueeze and food from the in-store bakery.  

Other facilities customers will benefit from in the new store include hot and cold food to go and parcel services through DPD and In-Post. 

Waterbeach resident, Clare McDonald said: “The East of England Co-op is so welcome to Waterbeach, we do have local stores but actually this is by far the best offering that we could have, we’ve needed this kind of store for a long time.” 

The East of England Co-op will be opening its next Cambridgeshire store at the new One Cambridge Square development near Cambridge North station later this year.