New Food Stores In Capital Set The Trend

Waitrose said it plans to open four new London superstores in time for Christmas and Daylesford Organic is launching a major new store and café in Notting Hill. The new Waitrose stores are in Chiswick, Islington, Clapham and Edgware Road and will replace branches of Woolworths.

The home-cooking revolution sweeping through London has seen 100s of specialist food shops open in recent years as shoppers have been influenced by celebrity chefs such as Gordon Ramsay and Nigella Lawson and have rediscovered a love of good British ingredients.

Waitrose, last night named as “best high street retailer” by Which? magazine, believes that the strong trend towards cooking more meals at home means that there is huge scope for expansion in the capital. It is running neck and neck with Asda with about a ten perent share of the grocery market in London but believes it can leap ahead and start to close in on Sainsbury’s in second place.

Waitrose managing director, Mark Price, said, “These acquisitions will allow us to reach up to 200,000 new shoppers in the capital and will support our ambitious growth plans.

“We are delighted to add these prime locations to our portfolio of shops, particularly as they are sited in our heartland areas where Londoners have been requesting Waitrose branches for many years. These shops will consolidate our position in London, bringing the total number of branches in the region to 44.” In October Waitrose is also opening a major store at the new Westfield shopping centre in Shepherd’s Bush. Waitrose added that sales have held up well and are around seven percent ahead of last year.

Daylesford Organic, founded as a farm shop in Gloucestershire by Carole Bamford in 2003, has also revealed plans to open a store in Notting Hill in the autumn. It has taken over a row of three properties on Westbourne Grove and is spending an estimated £5 million on converting them and plans to be open by Christmas. The store will be its second major outlet in London after the branch it opened in Pimlico last April.

However, the Notting Hill branch has been planned on a much more ambitious scale and will occupy premises vacated by another organic food store, Fresh & Wild, which closed last April as a prelude to its American owner - Whole Foods Market - opening Britain’s first organic superstore in Kensington High Street. It is expected that the new store will be on three levels with two-thirds of the space given to shopping and a third to a 99-seater café, including pavement tables. It will have a drinks licence and plans to be open from breakfast to late evening.

The split level ground floor will have the main “food hall” selling groceries, meat, fruit and vegetables, freshly baked bread, wine, and upmarket home wear. There will also be an organic health and beauty range as well as the café. In the basement there will be a “raw bar” selling fresh salads, fruit juices, and light raw vegetables to be eaten at three long dining tables. The refurbishment is still at an early stage and the project does not yet have full planning permission.

Source: The Evening Standard