A LARGE crowd of people turned out early to witness the opening of the brand-new Aldi store in Ruabon.

Customers were lining up outside the door as early as 5am to make sure they could get through the doors as soon as the supermarket opened at 8am.

To mark the occasion, Team GB Olympic bronze medallist, Katy Marchant cut the ribbon to officially open the new store, and also handed out golden envelopes to the first 250 people in the queue, each containing a prize.

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Aldi shoppers with their golden envelopes. Pictures: Liam Gotting

Those first customers will all had a chance to win a variety of prizes including a four-piece rattan garden furniture set and Aldi shopping vouchers.

The first customer on site was Ken Peters from Gwersyllt, who was queuing up by the front doors at 4:50am.

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Team GB Olympic bronze medallist, Katy Marchant with Aldi employees officially opening the new store

He said: “I’m very happy that there is going to be a new Aldi here, I think it’s going to be very beneficial for the community.

“I’m excited to get inside and see what kind of things they’ve got on offer for the opening day.

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Shoppers eagerly awaiting to get into the supermarket

"I’m also excited to get one of these golden envelopes and see what I get, I’d like to get the best food voucher possible.”

Speaking about why he arrived so early, he said: “To be honest with you, I was struggling to sleep last night.

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Ken Peters at the front of the queue

“I’d had a very salty pizza the night before, and I went downstairs very early in the morning to get myself a glass of water, and when I looked at the time I thought why not go now?

“I know it’s a long time to wait, and to be honest I was surprised when I turned up at around 10 to 5 that I was the first person, but it’s been worth it.”

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Team GB Olympic bronze medallist, Katy Marchant in front of the crowd of shoppers

Delphine Thomas was another one of the early risers queuing to get into the store, she said: “When this was going through the process of being built, I originally wasn’t very happy because of the disruption that was being caused at the roundabout.

“However, having seen it today, I must say that I’m very pleased with it, it looks absolutely amazing.

“I do think that overall it will be a good thing for Ruabon, and I just love food and food shopping so it’s definitely a good thing for me as well.”

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Rachel Butterton and Darren Houghton after shopping for the first time in Aldi Ruabon

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Aisles were jammed following the opening at 8am

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Aldi Ruabon