A Bradford supermarket group was due to open its new £1.7 million superstore today, creating up to 70 jobs.

The Pakeezah Group will be expanding into the new store in Ingleby Road, Bradford, before it plans to re-locate its Leeds Road superstore to the former Halfords shop in Thornbury, Bradford.

The group has said it aims to invest up to £15 million into the Bradford district in the next five years, creating between 300 and 400 jobs as it expands its distribution centre and meat processing factory, as well as opening a food production facility.

Tariq Haq, a director of the Pakeezah Group, said the group took the Ingleby Road store over from Yorkshire Fruits Limited.

He said: “We are on target to do our store at Halfords at the top of Leeds Road, which is a big one, and this site in Ingleby Road belonged to some friends of our dad.

“My dad used to do business with them for the last 40 years and they were struggling on that site and they wanted to get rid of it, so we basically helped them by taking it over and thought it would be good for us to have a site on that side of Bradford.

“So it’s just filling a gap between doing the big one at Thornbury, which we hope to open next year in the summer of 2011.”

Mr Haq said some of the staff from the previous business will remain at the site, although they are also hoping to employ a further 70 people.

The group was celebrating the launch of its new superstore yesterday after HSBC’s Bradford Commercial team provided funding for the project.

Mark Vines, HSBC regional commercial director for Yorkshire and the North East, said: “We are delighted to have supported the Pakeezah Group in its new superstore and to have become its sole banking partner.

“This family-run business, which has been trading for decades, is an excellent example of how companies can work with a proactive bank and expand their proven business model.”

The new store will see the company increase its international trading operations, with much of the ethnic varieties of food for the new outlet being imported from Asia.

Mr Haq said once the £3.5m Thornbury site has opened, the current store in Leeds Road will become a restaurant and banqueting hall and the Ingleby Road store will continue as it is.

Pakeezah Group consists of three companies.

In addition to Pakeezah Stores, which focuses on ethnic food varieties and a takeaway food section, the group also includes Pakeezah Meat, a processing company with a £6.8 million turnover, and property holding company Haq Properties.