PRESTWICH is to be home to the North West's biggest kitchen showroom.

The development is being undertaken by prestige kitchen specialist, Stuart Frazer.

Its flagship showroom in Prestwich will add to the three shops in the company's highly successful Lancashire chain.

The latest acquisition is a retail unit of almost 4,000 sq ft on Bury New Road, just off junction 17 of the M62.

On line for opening in early 2000, the new showroom will accommodade eight full working kitchen displays and a state-of-the-art cookery demonstration area which will be used to hold evening events.

These functions will be hosted by some of the region's leading professional chefs.

Stuart Frazer has plans for an extension to the showroom later next year. And when completed, it will be the largest prestige kitchen showroom in the North West.

A founder member of the Kitchen Specialists Association, the company has gone through considerable growth since it was established by managing director Mark Harrison 25 years ago.

He said: "We have been searching for a key location with easy access to Manchester city centre and surrounding towns for a while now and are obviously delighted to have acquired this prominent retail site.

"Prestwich is a flourishing and discerning suburb and we are carrying out more and more installations in this area.

"So," he added, "it made sense to be on the ground where we can improve our service even further.

"The Prestwich showroom is well-placed to service the city centre and North Manchester markets and, thanks to its excellent position near the motorway network, we should also attract customers from South Manchester, Bolton and even Leeds."

Stuart Frazer is one of the region's only suppliers of prestige kitchens SieMatic and Poggenpohi.

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