A star from The Only Way is Essex will be on this side of the Thames on Friday to open a new Poundland store.

James Lock, or 'Lockie', will be officially opening the long-awaited shop in County Square shopping centre in Ashford.

The star is likely to pick up a nice pay packet for the opening following a report in the Sun that Coronation Street stars have earned more than £225,000 from opening new Poundland branches.

Stars from the show have opened up more than 75 different branches, earning up to £3,000 by doing the honours.

It was confirmed last year that Poundland would be taking over the large unit in County Square which was formerly a BHS store until it closed in July 2016.

Poundland closed its larger store in the high street last July, which has now become B&M, and was running out of its smaller store in County Square - just a few units down from its new one - until the larger unit was ready.

Mick Fagan, Poundland Area Manager, said: "Its the second new store in the county in the past few months but this is the flagship store for Kent.

"It's 16,000 sq ft and is carrying the full range of Poundland products.

"After closing down the high street store last year, we moved the majority of stock into the smaller store in County Square so we've been waiting for some time to get into the unit and to increase back to full range.

"We're also excited to have Pep&Co coming to the store as well. Its a quality, value clothing brand and a great addition to Ashford.

"We're really looking forward to opening."

Adrian Mountford, managing director of Pep&Co , added: “We’re so excited to be bringing Pep&Co to Poundland’s new site here in Ashford.

"We’re on the hunt for local trend-setting bargain hunters to help us tell everyone we’ve arrived.”

James Lock will be opening the store on Friday at 10am.

It is not yet clear what will happen to the current Poundland store when the new one opens.