Asda Cwmbran colleagues arrange Christmas treat for their regular 106-year-old customer

• Oldest man in Wales been shopping at retailer for 24 years. 
• Longevity down to “never really growing up” and having a thimble of Scotch before bed

The oldest man in Wales, 106-year-old Owen Filer, has shopped at the Asda Cwmbran store nearly every day since it first opened 24 years ago and says he wouldn’t dream of going anywhere else – so colleagues arranged an early Christmas gift to say thank you as part of the retailers Christmas Kindness initiative. 

Mr Filer is a local celebrity, so colleagues always look out for his visits and stand by to offer any help he needs. So, this week colleagues presented him with a trolley full of the regular things he buys, plus some festive treats like biscuits, yule log and mince pies. 

Mr Filer said: “I’m very grateful. It was a wonderful gesture. I go to Asda every day except a Sunday. I get the bus, as I’ve got a free bus pass, and it drops me right outside.

“Everyone is so friendly at Asda and they all know me by name – I always have a good chat and a laugh and a joke, and if I need help with anything I’ll always get it. They are so nice. Everyone in Wales talks to each other. If I live to 119 I won’t go anywhere else, always Asda.

“I just get a few items each time I come in, just small things. I’m always running out of something. I’m always on the look out for a bargain too. I love my biscuits, cereals… and Heinz tomato soup. It’s always clean and tidy here and I’ve never had any complaints about the food.”

Mr Filer, who’s a widower, served in Royal Welsh Fusiliers and then the Military Police during World War Two and recently met King Charles at a VJ Day anniversary.

He puts his longevity down to “never really growing up” and having a thimble of Scotch before bed. He said: “I’ve a very youthful outlook on life!

“My family is 40-strong and I’m the top man! I’ve got four children, ten grand-children and 15 great, grand-children, with the youngest being three months old.”

Asda Cwmbran’s customer manager Cali Beale says everyone in the store loves seeing Mr Filer.

She said: “Mr Filer is a true gentleman and it’s an honour to have him in our store. He loves his Asda shopping trips and enjoys chatting to the girls on checkouts. He’s still very independent and loves to tell us all his stories; every colleague in the store knows him. It’s such a pleasure to serve him in our store. He is fantastic for his age.

Here’s what some of the colleagues said about him:

Checkouts colleague Lesley Duthie said: “Mr Filer is such a kind man with so much warmth, he makes us all laugh every time he’s in the store.”

Claire Hayes, from self scan, said: “He’s just a lovely chap with a warm heart.”

Security colleague Nick Powell said: “He still has a very youthful heart.”

And Merib Lewis, also on checkouts, said: “Mr Filer is very family oriented and even showed me photographs of when he met the King.”