FORTY jobs will be created when a budget chain opens up at the site of a former electricals store that has been empty since 2012.

Bargain Buys, which has 13 stores nationwide, will move into the former Comet store on King Street next to Asda later this summer.

The news comes as another timely boost for the town centre following the loss of Burtons and Dorothy Perkins on the corner of Bridge Street and Church Street.

Launched by the same father and son behind Poundworld, Bargain Buys is seen as a high street rival to Home Bargains and B&M and is described as a ‘multi-price’ discount store.

Budget stores have performed particularly strongly during tough economic times, which has squeezed shoppers’ spending power.

The store in St Helens will be the company’s first stand-alone unit in the country but it has other shops located in towns and cities including Runcorn, Rochdale, Walsall and Sheffield.

It is hoped it will open mid-July.

Despite continual doom and gloom by some observers about the town centre, there have been some brighter signs.

A number of independent shops have been set up in previously empty units by entrepreneurs.

And the Star revealed last week that Costa Coffee plan to move into the Coverdales soft furnishing store further along Church Street.

Council leader Barrie Grunewald said he is aware of the need to address issues in the town centre and the importance of maintaining it as the “vibrant, commercial heartbeat of the borough”.

Grunewald recently appointed Ged Gibbons to head up a team looking at revitalising the town centre.