THE countdown to the opening of the country’s second biggest M&S begins today, with news the store at Cheshire Oaks will open on Wednesday, August 29, at 10am.

Builders officially handed over the keys to store manager Hilary Wilkinson and her team this morning.

They will work flat out over the next five weeks to prepare the eagerly anticipated store for its official opening.

The final touches will include:

Stocking more than half a million products across clothing, homeware and giftware.

Filling the fridges and shelves in the food hall with nearly 7,000 lines.

Dressing more than 500 mannequins with the latest from autumn/winter collections.

Polishing more than 38,000 floor tiles on the sales floor.

Testing more than 3,000 light bulbs installed in the store.

Specially training a dedicated team of bakers, baristas and deli workers to serve customers in the bakery cafe.

Store manager Hilary Wilkinson said: “The next few weeks are all about getting this one-of-a-kind store ready for our customers over the next five weeks. The team and I are thrilled to be in the final stages of adding the finishing touches.”

Built over two floors with more than 148,000sq ft of selling space, the size of nearly 11 Olympic-sized swimming pools, the store will include a large food hall and two M&S cafes, with seating for about 430 customers.

Hilary will be supported by a team of 500 employees with a wide array of roles, such as customer assistants, bakers, eco-champions, deli workers, beauty specialists and managers.

As part of its commitment to increase the employment opportunities for disadvantaged groups, M&S has also worked with charities Remploy and Gingerbread as well as West Cheshire College in Ellesmere Port to recruit 70 people that face barriers to work, such as those with disabilities, lone parents and the young unemployed.

Cheshire Oaks is also one of M&S’s greenest stores, built with the latest sustainable building technologies and practices, some of which are firsts in retail.

They include softwood timber called Glulam in the roof and first floor which is as strong as steel or concrete but requires only a fraction of the carbon to produce.

The wall panels are made of a hemp and lime mix called Tradical Hemclad, which has excellent insulation and absorbs carbon from the atmosphere.

Rainwater will be used to flush the toilets.

Hilary added: “We can’t wait for all our customers to see the new store and help celebrate the opening in August – we promise it’ll be an event to remember.”

M&S Cheshire Oaks is the biggest M&S store outside London, second in size to the retailer’s flagship Marble Arch store on Oxford Street.