AROUND 500 people have applied for 120 new jobs at a new supermarket opening in Newport next month.

Applicants are currently being interviewed for jobs at the Sainsbury’s store in Crindau, which will open in mid-September.

Around 250 members of staff who work at the area’s current Sainsbury’s store will be transferred to the new store, which will employ 370 people in total.

The current store in Shaftesbury Street will close when the new supermarket opens.

A spokesman for Sainsbury’s said the supermarket chain was delighted with the response from applicants.

Members of Newport council’s planning committee gave plans for the store unanimous approval in September last year.

The 7,063 square metre store will be built on the former Crindau gasworks site and include a restaurant, 670-space car park and petrol filling station.

It will also have eco-friendly features including rainwater harvesting equipment and will use a lot of natural light to save electricity.

A hotel, flats and houses are to be built on the site of the current store after outline planning permission was granted by the council last November.

The plans include a 109-bedroom hotel, an apartment block with 72 one-bedroom flats and 48 two-bedroom flats, 20 three-bedroom houses and six four-bedroom houses.