THOUSANDS of shoppers packed out the Westgate Centre to splash some cash on the first day of opening.

The £440m centre soon got busy, with queues forming outside Japanese clothing chain Uniqlo.

Its central operating officer, Satoshi Naito, turned up to make sure the opening day went smoothly.

He said: “We see this as a great opportunity – Oxford is a busy city with lots of tourists and lots of students.”

Store manager Emilia Zaleska, 26, originally from Poland, has been working for the company for five years in its London stores and said it was ‘thrilling and very challenging’ to be in charge of the new Uniqlo at Westgate.

She said: “We have about 50 full and part-time staff and we are still looking for more sales assistants.

“London feels like a different country to Oxford but we have a massive store here and it’s in a very nice location in the centre.”

Jilly Campbell-Macdonald, 74, from Burford, joined her friend Anne Miszka, 70, from Oxford, to check out the new shops.

Ms Campbell-Macdonald, who bought women’s clothing at Joules, tea from T2, and make-up from John Lewis, said: “I think the new Westgate is absolutely brilliant – I came in by car and got here shortly before 8am – I had no problem with the traffic.”

Ms Miszka, who visited Joules and Primark, added: “The new Westgate will change the face of the city centre – perhaps there could have been a grander opening ceremony.”

Megan Marsh, 18, a sales assistant at cosmetics store Lush, said staff were excited to move across from their store in Cornmarket Street.

She added: “The new store looks brilliant – the Westgate Centre will bring people into the city and not just for shopping.”

The rooftop terrace area, which features restaurants including chain Sticks ‘n’ Sushi, got busy at lunchtime as shoppers took a break from rushing between stores.

Ben Rees, head of finance for international chain Le Pain Quotidien, said it was a good start for the new branch at the Westgate Centre, where there is ‘all day dining’.

He added: “We opened at 8am and soon got very busy.

“We got a very good reaction from customers and hope turnover here will be very good – we are quite close to John Lewis.”

Alongside national chains such as Uniqlo, Superdry and Primark there were a number of independent businesses competing for trade.

These included grooming products company Burrows & Hare, which also has a store at the Covered Market.

Co-director of the business, Azeem Ansari, said: “We got a great reaction from customers.

“Lots of them said they recognised us from their visits to the Covered Market.”