You can override the type of data using the types option on add row.
Something like:
worksheet.add_row ['0012342'], :types => [:string]
Grab me on irc (JST) if you need any help getting that to work.
Best
randym
edit --
I've added an example for this to examples/example.rb in the repo.
wb.add_worksheet(:name => "Override Data Type") do |sheet|
sheet.add_row ['dont eat my zeros!', '0088'] , :types => [nil, :string]
end
https://github.com/randym/axlsx/blob/master/examples/example.rb#L349