Sainsbury’s has become the first supermarket to open a training centre for convenience store managers.

It is based in London and is set to run 2,000 training courses in the first year for the management teams in its Sainsbury’s Local convenience shops.

Director of convenience for Sainsbury’s, Simon Twigger, said: “Running a store is like running your own business, so being a good store manager is about knowing your customers, your community and your colleagues.

“This new training facility will now boost and support those skills with detailed management expertise, to go even further to help our colleagues run our stores and power our convenience growth in the capital.”

The training centre has opened following a recruitment campaign to find 500 team leaders and 200 managers for Sainsbury’s convenience stores, with 60 new shops due to open in London and the South-east over the next year.