TESCO has been revealed as the mystery buyer of Worcester’s former post office building on Foregate Street.

Britain’s biggest supermarket chain has announced it will open a Tesco Express store in the old post office after it was bought last month for an undisclosed fee, leaving rival bidders Worcestershire County Council and a regional pub chain disappointed.

The county council had hoped to combine the former post office and adjoining Foregate Street railway station into a new transport gateway for Worcester, bringing together rail, bus and taxi services in one ‘super station’.

And a pub company had wanted to turn the building into a huge three-storey bar. But a spokesman for Tesco said this week: “We are delighted to confirm our plans to open a new Tesco Express store in the former post office building on Foregate Street, Worcester.

“Our plans are currently in the early stages of development. However, work will start over the coming months and we hope to be able to open early next year, offering between 20 and 30 jobs for local people.”

The new branch will be the fourth Tesco Express in Worcester, following on from shops in Warndon, Martley Road and London Road, but the first in the heart of the city.

Earlier this year city council planners rejected Tesco’s application to build an Express store just half a mile up the road from the former post office – at the old Esso garage on Barbourne Road – amid fears about the impact on local shops. But permission would not be needed to transform the Foregate Street building into a mini-supermarket, as under planning laws post offices are already classed as retail outlets.

Derek Prodger, the county’s cabinet member in charge of transport, insisted he still hopes to work with the new buyers to improve the adjoining station. “We are disappointed our bid was unsuccessful,” he said. “However, we are now focusing on enhancing the railway station and are keen to work with the purchasers of the old post office site to achieve both our aims.”

Another failed bidder was Birmingham-based pub company Town and Country Inns, which had hoped to open a new branch of its Après Bar chain across all three floors of the building.

Owner Keith Williams said: “I’m disappointed – we would have loved to have opened a bar there.

“We bid a substantial amount of money.

“But I’m still keen to bring Après Bars to Worcester and we’re looking for an alternative site.”

The property was home to Worcester’s main post office for more than 40 years before the Royal Mail Group moved the service into the High Street branch of WHSmith earlier this summer.