Bolton: Skipton Building Society hosts open day in new branch

Skipton Building Society marked the opening of its new branch with A ribbon cutting ceremony and open day this week.

Customers old and new were welcomed into the new premises at 58-60 Deansgate, just up the road from their previous site.

The new branch  is billed as a much more welcoming, accessible for customers to be able to access the full range of services.

Branch leader Sue Keating-Millington say the new space is hugely different to the previous branch.

READ MORE: Skipton Building Society announces move to ‘prime’ Bolton town centre site

“We were over three levels in the previous branch, and we were limited on office space downstairs,” she said.

“This gives us a much brighter, open space for customers. We’ve got much more facilities and four offices on the ground floor and a disabled toilet which we didn’t have before.

“And we have a new kitchen area so we can make a nice brew for them.

“It’s a huge difference to the customers.”

Inside the new branch on the open day (Image: Newsquest)

Mrs Keating-Millington says that the new space will also be a benefit to their staff.

She said: “In the old branch we were having to move around a lot between shared offices.

READ MORE: Skipton Building Society to open Bolton town centre branch this week

“The team love it.

Ribbon cutting duties fell to chief executive at Urban Outreach Dave Bagley, who says it was quite an honour as he has never done it before.

The charity receives “a great deal of support” from Skipton, he says.

He added: “I love Bolton. Bolton’s my home.

Dave Bagley (left), Sue Keating-Millington (middle right), and Stuart Haire (right) with branch staff on the open day (Image: Newsquest)

“There is stuff happening in Bolton. Everybody puts us down and thinks about closure, but this is opening. This is life.

“It’s a beautiful building, it’s a light building and it’s right in the important part of the town centre.

“New stuff and new openings says ‘future’ and I love it.”

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CEO of the Skipton Group Stuart Haire was also in attendance at the open day.

He said: “We’re a community organisation. We are owned by our members so therefore we want to create spaces that our members want to come in. 

Inside the new branch (Image: Newsquest)

“You can see today, I think the members appreciate that we’re investing into the local community and into the town centre.”

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Mr Haire says it is “crucial” to have places like Skipton on the high street.

He added: “Looking out, you can see that the high street’s quite quiet. The only way we reverse that is if you create destinations, reasons for people to come in.”

The team at the new branch are currently looking for a new member to join their staff.

Information about the customer service consultant role can be found at careers.skipton.co.uk.