A new business is moving into the former site of a high street retailer that fell into administration.

Opticians Specsavers will be opening in the unit that used to be occupied by the old M&Co store in Thoroughfare, Woodbridge on Thursday, with a grand opening on Saturday.

Previously, Specsavers had been based at another site in the same street, but had decided to move because the new premises will allow the business to see more customers.

READ MORE: M&Co in Thoroughfare, Woodbridge closes its doors

The M&Co store, which shut its doors in April, was among 170 across the UK to close after the business fell into administration in December 2022- the second time in two years.

At the time of the closure, an M&Co spokesperson said on Facebook:  "On behalf of all the team at M&Co Woodbridge, I would like to thank all our customers for their loyalty over the years.

"The past 25 years has seen many changes to Woodbridge town, to retail high streets and especially the teams and customers I have had the pleasure of working alongside.

"We wish you all the best, whatever the future holds for everyone of our customers new and old." 

READ MORE: Woodbridge news

The enlarged unit will enable Specsavers to go from having four testing rooms to seven, as well as increasing its audiology rooms from one to two, hiring more team members and increasing the capacity to look after customers' needs.

Victoria Robins, ophthalmic director of the Woodbridge store, said: "We’ve been on the High Street for over 13 years and we pride ourselves on serving the community of Woodbridge.

"We love taking care of the residents of Woodbridge, but we wanted to do more and with the space in our old store, that simply wasn’t possible.

"With this new store, we can do so much more and serve many more customers each week.

"As we edge closer to opening day, we are working hard preparing the store for the community and we can’t wait to see what the future holds."

Woodbridge Mayor Eamonn O'Nolan will be cutting the ribbon to open the new store at the grand opening on Saturday. 

READ MORE: Suffolk news