Brentford Nub News aims to support our community, promoting shops, businesses, charities, clubs and sports groups.

We will be profiling some of these businesses and organisations regularly in a feature called 'Up Close in Brentford'.

We chatted to Bidhya Gurung, Co-op's Brentford store manager.

Bidhya first moved to London from her native Nepal and started studying at Middlesex University.

During her studies, she also started working at the Co-op as a customer team member in 2013.

She quickly rose through the ranks to team leader, then to team manager and by 2015, she had become the store manager - the first female store manager the Boston Manor Road store had ever seen.

"I worked with various inspirational managers without whom I would have lacked guidance and also had tremendous support from my colleagues," she told Brentford Nub News.

Bidhya explained that working at Co-op is 'different every day' and she really enjoys that.

"Our staff, the customers, the community, everyone is so diverse, and you get to meet and interact with all these different people and have different conversations every day," she said.

"At the same time, I strongly support the Co-op's vision of cooperating for a fairer world.

"Every decision we take at a micro level will have an impact on the overall way the business is run.

"The job satisfaction you get when you have made a difference in the community while doing everyday routine tasks is really out of this world."

Since the pandemic, Bidhya said the store had been to even greater lengths to ensure their customers were well looked after.

Co-op Membership allows its members to donate 2p in every £1 they spend to the local community.

Bidhya explained: "If you're a Co-op member, when you swipe your membership card you'll receive 2p for every £1 spent for yourself, but also 2p is split between supporting local causes through the Local Community Fund and the Community Partnerships Fund which supports like-minded national organisations.

At the moment the three causes being supported by the Local Community Fund are Speak Out in Hounslow, the Shelter Project in Hounslow and the Hounslow Community Foodbox.

During the pandemic the store also teamed up with local volunteers to deliver shopping orders to those who were self-isolating.

Bidhya said: "It was very important for us to keep our staff safe, which is why we followed the government's guidance to the letter and set up one-way systems and social distancing measures, but at the same time we wanted to keep our customers safe and make them feel comfortable, so we introduced a free online delivery service for those who were self-isolating."

Recently the Brentford store has also installed recycling bins in store, which allow customers and members to recycle their plastics and small cardboards.

Bidhya said: "We pride ourselves on our work on sustainability."

Co-op membership helps support your local community, with great rewards for you too.

When you buy selected Co-op branded products and services, 2p for every pound spent goes to you and we'll give the same to local communities.

Join us today online at the Co-op website or in-store.