THE latest card shop to open in the town centre had a successful first weekend as customers piled in to discover what was on the shelves.

Cardmarket, the latest high street venture from Swindon-based retailer WHSmith, officially opened its first store nationally on the ground floor of the Brunel Centre shopping complex on Saturday.

The store has already been well-stocked for the Christmas season with cards, advent calenders, 2015 calenders and diaries and a variety of other novelty gifts.

These are all alongside the day-to-day wares of the store, including greetings cards, balloons, candles and writing materials.

Store supervisor Lewis Carpenter said: “It’s been good. We had a soft opening on Thursday and Friday and our official opening was on Saturday.

“We’ve had a lot of customers coming in to have a look and they’ve been saying they think it’s spacious and light, which is good.

“Overall it’s been a pretty successful opening weekend from our point of view.”

So far the store has proved a hit and one customer, who did not wish to be named, said: “I just popped in there for a few bits and pieces and they had exactly what I needed. I was just getting birthday cards but I found what I was looking for.”

WHSmith posted a nine per cent rise in annual profits last Thursday and to date has 725 travel stores and 604 high street stores nationwide.

There are hopes that Cardmarket will prove another lucrative enterprise for the firm.

A spokesman from WH Smith said: “We are delighted to announce that cardmarket is now open in Swindon town centre.

“As a leading national retailer, WHSmith are always looking for new opportunities to test and develop new store formats. We intend to trial a small number of stores which will provide customers a wide range of value cards, gifts and balloons, utilising our existing head office infrastructure, supply chain and field team to support a standalone value cards store.

“We look forward to welcoming customers to the new store.”

Like its Brunel Centre neighbour, Card Factory, WHSmith is using Cardmarket to target the discount end of the greetings cards industry and will set up units in low-rent locations.

WHSmith said: “In contrast to our existing greeting cards offer, which is at the premium end of the market, these stores will provide customers with a value based proposition in this growing part of the market.

“The trial will be in relatively low rent, short term leases in non prime pitch locations.”