CUSTOMERS queued to get their first glimpse inside Dumbarton's newest supermarket this morning as Lidl opened its doors at 8am.

The store has created around 40 new jobs for the area and the opening also marked Lidl's 800th shop in the UK.

The Castle Street store is also Lidl’s 101st in Scotland, so the first 101 customers to make a purchase were able to claim a goody bag, with one lucky bag containing a £100 shopping voucher.

Christian Härtnagel, Lidl GB chief executive officer, said: “We’re excited to have reached this milestone, which simply means that we’re bringing affordable, high quality food to even more households across Britain.

"I’m proud of our fantastic teams, from our colleagues working on the shop floor to our colleagues in the warehouse and across our offices, who have driven our expansion efforts around the country.

"We’re looking forward to opening our doors to even more communities this year and into this new decade where we see so much potential for further growth.”

Employees working in the Dumbarton store will benefit from Lidl’s hourly wage of £9.30 per hour from March 1, which is higher than the UK Government’s national living wage, making them amongst the highest paid in the supermarket sector.

As part of its ongoing plans, Lidl has committed to investing £1.3bn in its store expansion over 2021 and 2022.