Asda Rochdale lend a hand to support local communities

Photo: John Farrington

Asda, Rochdale after it was badly hit by the floods

Staff at Asda in Rochdale gave up their time over Christmas to help clean up and supply food, clothes, cleaning products, etc., helping communities affected by last month’s floods.

The store was itself badly hit by the floods, leaving the warehouse yard five feet under water and the car park under three feet of water.

Andrew Taylor, general store manager at Asda Rochdale said: “I can’t thank all the colleagues, managers and facilities teams who helped us recover enough, they were all a credit to our company.”

“Colleagues in store on the day were fantastic in making sure customers got out safely and worked round the clock to get the store reopened only 48 hours after being hit.”

The relief efforts have tied in with an announcement from the Asda Foundation that it is increasing its fund for local disasters to £500,000 to help local communities in their time of need over the next 12 months.

Chairman of the Asda Foundation, Alex Simpson said: “Store colleagues in Rochdale were absolutely fantastic in supporting their neighbours – from joining the clean-ups in their areas to providing emergency supplies to community groups and charities to distribute where they’re needed the most.

“Our store managers and Community Life Colleagues are really leading this drive on the ground and the decision to increase our local disaster fund to £500,000 to help them do this was an easy one for the trustees to make.”

The fund is used to provide community groups and charities with food, water, clothing, cleaning materials and products and support during the clean-up. It also puts a colleague hardship fund in place to support Asda colleagues whose homes are affected by local disasters.