Marks and Spencer will become the first store to open in the £225m Lexicon Development when it welcomes in customers this Thursday. 

The Mayor of Bracknell, Councillor Tina McKenzie-Boyle, as well as Percy Pig will be in attendance as the new flagship store christens the Lexicon.

Store manager Tom Henderson spoke about the nerves of being the first store in the new development and why M&S was ahead of the game.

He said: "I think it's about time Bracknell got something to shout about. 

"It's a fantastic development and Marks and Spencer's wanted in part to get the very best people in the town to come and work for us.

"Opening earlier we can start recruiting earlier, have better access to the town and everything is quieter, rather than competing with all these other places. We got a head start. 

"It's all very well and good having this big beautiful building, but without the people it's just a big box of stuff." 

The new multi-storey car park will be opening on the same day, and Mr Henderson admitted to some nerves after the Ikea in Reading suffered big traffic problems in its initial days.

"It's going to be interesting to see the pulling power, the infrastructure, how the car park works, because there's a worry about opening the car park on day one, is it going to work? Hopefully it will. 

"Ikea is at the front of my mind because that happened just down the road, and lots of the locals know about it.

"I'm confident that we'll deliver the very best of M&S, our staff are fantastic, and we've got a very good team here." 

The Wokingham branch of Marks and Spencer will close to make way for the new store, but every member of staff from the outgoing store has been offered a job at any M&S they choose.

"We've incorporated a great number of people from the Wokingham store, but we've also got people from the Reading store and from the Camberley store," he continued.

"We've got a great base of people coming together, we're a great mix of experience and we've got some great people coming in from the town. 

"It was really important to hire from the local community, because I think it was part of the fabric and makeup of the store. 

"If you've got local people then they know the area, you get them talking with the customers, you start to get regulars, your neighbours, it cements your place in the community.

"We want to be a real strong part of this community, not just because it looks good, but because ultimately this is their shop. I'm here to ensure they get the best shop and the best products, 

"The job centre in Bracknell was vital, we did all of our recruitment out of the job centre there, so they were really helpful in the case of using their offices, keeping it local, not throwing people over to another shop."