SELSDON'S Woolworths store is reopening next week – albeit in a smaller format.

The eagerly-anticipated Smallworths, in Addington Road, will welcome its first customers at 10am on Tuesday.

The Advertiser revealed last month how the shop was the brainchild of two former Woolworths managers, Ken Holdway and Asad Khan.

The shop, which will employ about ten people, will stock the most popular of the lines Woolworths did, but with a focus on a wide range of toys.

Mr Khan, 32, who managed a Woolies branch in Peckham, said: "I'm really looking forward to the opening.

"We've already had people knocking on the windows asking when we would be opening.

"It's been a burning ambition to run my own business like a Woolworths, with a friendly atmosphere and great products.

"But we'll adapt as we go along. If the customers want a certain product and there is enough demand then we will stock them. Even our opening times will be calculated according to demand."

Mr Khan's business partner, Mr Holdway, 42, is a former manager of a Woolworths in Beckton, east London.

The pair decided to go into business a year ago with the aim of reviving the old Woolworths shopping experience.