A new arts and craft superstore has opened in the city, creating 35 jobs.

HobbyCraft, at the Riverside Retail Park, in Norwich, opened its doors to customers for the first time on Thursday and held its official opening on Saturday

Gareth Ware, general manager for the Norwich store, said: 'We have had a fantastic response from customers.

'We had a queue of more than 400 people at the door when we opened on Saturday.'

He said HobbyCraft had chosen to open a store in Norwich because the city was a prime location and a lot of customers had been asking for the national chain to move to the city.

He said the new shop also has a craft room where people can try new crafts, and in the future it could also become the base for number of groups such as a knitting club and paper craft club.

It is HobbyCraft's 51st superstore nationally.

The Norwich store caters for about 250 different crafts ranging from needlecrafts and card making to scale model kits and jigsaws. It sells about 38,000 different products

Until the Norwich store opened, the nearest HobbyCraft stores included Peterborough, Chelmsford and Milton Keynes.

In recent weeks Norwich has seen a number of new shops opening including fashion retailer Jack Wills on London Street and the Adnams shop in Chapelfield.

Other stores soon to open include Swedish retailer Clas Ohlson which sells a wide range of goods including hardware, furniture and electrical goods. The store is to open in the former Borders bookshop site in Chapelfield.

A new fashion store called Nottinghill has also moved into part of the former Zavvi store in The Mall while further afield, the Sainsbury's supermarket at the Longwater Retail Park, in Costessey, has just reopened following an expansion, which created 120 jobs.

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