MATALAN has reopened 15 of its shops in England - and the store in Bolton is one of them.

Staff at the Tonge Moor Road outlet welcomed customers through its doors yesterday, Monday, for the first time since the coronavirus lockdown began.

The move was sparked by the Government's advice on May 1 to include homeware as essential retail in England.

The retailer has therefore reopened shops that have large homeware departments and have a click and collect service.

Social distancing measures have been introduced in the stores.

In an announcement on Monday, a Matalan spokesman said: "Following our decision to close our stores almost eight weeks ago we’ve been working tirelessly on preparing our stores for reopening with enhanced health and safety measures and strict social distancing guidelines to ensure we offer the safest shopping environment for you.

"Given the change in Government guidance on May 1 to include homeware as essential retail in England, we are now pleased to inform you that we are starting to reopen selected stores.

"Starting today (Monday), following rigorous in-store testing and consultation with industry bodies, our colleagues and our customers, we will be opening an initial 15 stores in England.

"These stores will operate with enhanced health and safety measures and be fully compliant with social distancing rules.

"All employees have been trained appropriately and will be provided with mandatory PPE.

"We are very confident that these safety measures go above and beyond the guidance provided by the Government and Public Health England.

"We will initially be re-opening our spacious stores with large homeware departments and a click and collect service.

"These stores are all located on out of town retail parks, with parking outside, enabling us to effectively adhere to social distancing guidelines.

"High street stores, stores in shopping centres, our clearance stores and our stores in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales will remain closed.

"With our new safety measures in place, we are extremely happy to be back serving families across England, and look forward to welcoming our customers back into stores, and our colleagues returning from furlough.

"We are extremely grateful to all of our colleagues for their huge efforts in caring for our customers and the business, and to our customers for their continued loyalty to Matalan."

Here is the list of the locations of the stores that opened yesterday:

Basildon

Bradford Green Gates

Bolton

Cortonwood

Darlington

Halifax

Leeds Halton

Luton

Milton Keynes

Osterley Park/Southall

Rotherham

Southport

Stockton

Truro

Walsall - North