Waitrose will reopen this Thursday while plans for a rebuild are still in progress.

The luxury retail chain will open at 8am at the vacant Woolworths in Banstead which closed on January 2.

After four weeks of refurbishment, the store is ready to home most of the 200 staff from the previous supermarket, razed to the ground on Friday, December 12.

Staff have been working at stores in neighbouring towns following the fire where some will remain until the completion of the new supermarket.

The High Street store, a quarter of the size of the original, will sell fresh fruit and vegetables, bread, dairy products, pre-packed delicatessen lines, tinned and packet groceries.

Waitrose have also applied to Reigate and Banstead Borough Council for a licence to sell wines and beers.

Plans for a replacement supermarket were unveiled at a public exhibition on Friday, January 23.

More than 900 people attended the exhibition from 10am to 7pm at the United Reformed Church Hall, Woodmansterne Lane, Banstead.

Branch Manager, Stuart Thompson said: "We know from feedback at the public exhibition, that local people are missing Waitrose, so the team has been working hard to get the temporary shop up and running as quickly as possible.

"It will be staffed by familiar faces from Waitrose Banstead who are all looking forward to serving our customers again. Although it's a smaller shop than our previous one, we will be offering the best service we can under the circumstances. We've tried to include as many products as possible in the space available plus our popular self-scanning tills."

The temporary Waitrose will remain open until the new shop is built which is subject to planning consent by Reigate and Banstead Borough Council.

More than 100 fire fighters from Surrey stations took 15 hours to control the fire which broke out on the roof of the store just before 9pm.

About 60 residents were evacuated from nearby homes after a violent explosion hurled debris into the high-street, shattering shop windows.

If the planning application is approved, construction of the new supermarket is expected to start in June 2009 and be complete within a year.