THE recession could haunt the high street for another four years, warned discount chain chief Joe Morris.

“This is here for the long term, because there’s been such a fundamental change to our economics.

“It could take three or four years to get back to where we were and sort ourselves out.”

He added: “I think it is fairly long term, even though Gordon Brown doesn’t agree.”

And the operations director with Gillmoss-based family-owned retail group TJ Morris acknowledges that they must fight for every penny as the competition adapts to the challenging conditions.

He said: “Even people like Tesco are developing their own discount range – everybody has to be more competitive these days.

“We have to get more efficient so that we can pass on savings to customers, the longer the recession goes on.

“Looking at the job figures recently, there’s more pressure on people, and if they’re short of money they will go where they can to make that money stretch a bit further.”

Mr Morris believes that their chain, which trades as Home Bargains, is well placed to exploit shoppers’ current flight to value, but he added: “We still have to work very hard to get every penny of spend from customers.”

Part of the Home Bargains strategy is to target better locations to enhance their customer offer.

In January earlier this year, the business announced that it was acquiring 14 former Woolworths stores after the iconic brand collapsed in administration late last year.

TJ Morris is currently working on refurbishing a former Woolies store in Waterloo’s South Road, and last Saturday the group relocated its very first high street store, which opened in Old Swan’s Prescot Road, in 1979, to the nearby Woolworths site, doubling staffing numbers from 15 to 30.

Mr Morris said: “We started in Old Swan 30 years ago, so I suppose it’s a bit like going back to the future.

“Woolworths seemed to be in a different league and in a different world all those years ago, and this shows how the retail market can change because they were the sort of company that set the lead and set the standards.

“We are always trying to upgrade the stores and we have been in Prescot Road for a long time, so it is nice for us to find a new and bigger store to give better service and products to our customers.”

The company has invested £500,000 on refitting the site and, in common with the other former Woolworths stores that it has acquired, will endeavour to re-employ as many former staff as possible.

Mr Morris explained: “We have taken on quite a few former Woolworths staff since we got the 14 stores.

“They know the locations and the customers and they have great experience.

“But we got this particular site in January, and it has taken us five months to do the shop fit, so probably a lot of the former Woolworths staff will have got new jobs by now.”

Since opening in Old Swan 30 years ago, Home Bargains is now a UK-wide chain with more than 170 outlets employing more than 4,000 staff, with plans to open a further 30 new stores in the next six months, as part of a £15m investment creating 1,200 new jobs around the UK.

The company’s £35m distribution centre at the Axis Business Park will enable it to grow its store network and further increase its turnover, with the aim of breaking the £1bn milestone by 2015.