ASDA DENIES LACK OF LOCAL INVOLVEMENT
ASDA's Portlethen superstore has hit back at the allegations made by the local community council that they are not pulling their weight to support the town.
The PDCC felt that requests to meet with Asda and discuss community issues were being ignored.
Chairman Gordon Munn said: "The community council is the statutory body in Portlethen that represents the community. I don't think we are more important than other charities but it seems that over the last 18 months every request we have made has been ignored or turned down."
More recent complaints from a local Portlethen charity indicated that previous fundraising and donations from the store had stopped when Wal-Mart took over.
However, a spokeswoman for Asda stressed that the Portlethen branch had surpassed national targets when it came to fundraising, and that Wal-Mart had helped them increase the amount of charitable work they do.
Store manager David Ritchie said: "Asda have already engaged with the community council and we're happy to continue to do so. We're sorry the council feel that they've not received the donation they were looking for this time, but we'd like to reassure them that our colleagues at Asda Portlethen are very active in the local community.
"Although we're a big, nationwide retailer each store is responsible for their own charity budget and the decision to support a local charity work comes through our Colleague Circle and it is our colleagues who do the fundraising in- store. From schools to scout groups, housing shelters to the local church - we're passionate about the local community and make decisions based on what is most important to our colleagues, customers and Portlethen.
"On top of local charity work Portlethen store has punched above its weight with regards to national fundraising, raising thousands of pounds for Children in Need, Tickled Pink and Tommy's the baby charity to name just a few. In fact, being part of Walmart has actually enabled us to increase the scale and frequency of our charitable donations and they have recently released 1million of funding to help UK issues such as natural disasters, on top of everything we already do on a national, regional and local basis."
He continued: "I can assure our customers that their local Asda store is very involved with the community and always goes above and beyond to help local causes. I'm happy to speak with the council and restart the conversations about how we can support their charitable causes, although, as always, our level of support will depend on how important they are to our colleagues and customers."
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Saturday 04 February 2012
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