The UK’s community bank, Metro Bank, opens its 79th store in Leicester on Friday February 25th creating 15 new jobs for the area. The new Leicester Metro Bank is located at 1 Haymarket and offers local residents and business seven day a week opening.
The Grand Store Opening will be a two day celebratory event. Kicking off bright and early at 8.30am on both days - Leicester residents are invited to come along and join in all the fun. Metro Bank Grand Openings are lively events literally attended by hundreds of people, families and dog lovers who come along to enjoy the free entertainment on offer.
Officially opening the store at 10.30am will be Leicester’s Mayor and Metro Bank’s own super fan thirteen year old Oliver Benghiat. Oliver is one of a few rare people on the planet to have visited every Metro Bank store in the UK. Oliver, who lives in Epsom, Surrey was inspired to set himself this challenge when at ten years old his local Metro Bank store in Sutton came to visit his school to deliver its Money Zone* programme and inspired him to take on the challenge to visit every Metro Bank store by the time he turned thirteen.
As Oliver explains: “As more stores opened up the challenge got harder, but it was exciting to plan the next trip and see where it took us. The original aim was to complete it before my 12th birthday but then Covid got in the way and all our travelling around had to stop. So then the target was to do it before I turned 13 and I managed this. I only had one store left to visit in August 2021 and my whole family and I were going to visit it in Liverpool but then I got Covid so we couldn't go, I was so sad as we had planned this for so long. Luckily we booked a trip up to Liverpool in October half term so that I could tick off the last Metro Bank before my 13th Birthday in the November.”
As a huge thank you for all his support, Oliver will cut the official ribbon to commemorate the Leicester store opening.
Each morning from 8.30am a DJ will be playing cool tunes and great sounds to keep the party rocking through to 6pm. Throughout Friday attendees can enjoy a complimentary coffee from a local Barista coffee van and on Saturday everything cranks up with guest spots from the Dhol Drummers and there will be free face painting for kids from 10am – 4pm. On both days residents should look out for the resplendently tall stilt walkers and the company mascot Metro Man - always a huge selfie hit with kids.
The new store houses 6,000 safe deposit boxes and combines face-to-face banking with state-of-the-art technology, providing residents and businesses with a customer-focused and convenient banking experience.
Customers will be able to visit the store seven days a week, with no appointment needed, and open a personal or business account on-the-spot, leaving with their debit card in hand, along with internet and mobile banking set-up.
“We are proud to be opening Metro Bank’s second store in the East Midlands” commented Metro Bank store manager Stuart Williams. “We are looking forward to serving our local communities. All our colleagues have been recruited from Leicester so we already have a fantastic knowledge of the area – in fact we are all so local nearly every one of us can walk to work.”
Leicester companies and entrepreneurs will benefit from the appointment of local director Stu Hill and local business manager Suraj Madlani, both of whom are ready to help them run and grow their businesses, as well as having free use of the store’s meeting spaces.
“We have had a fantastic response from both the Leicester professional and business owner communities,” commented Leicester Metro Bank’s local director, Stu Hill. “Our People People approach to banking has been viewed as really refreshing - so much so that we have signed up a number of new business accounts even before we have opened.”
Metro Bank is famously very dog friendly. Water bowls, treats and branded bandanas are all available in store for four legged VIP visitors.
The Leicester Metro Bank store is located at 1 Haymarket, Leicester, LE1 3GD.