Waitrose is to unveil its first convenience store in the City this summer, as part of an opening blitz of 10 smaller shops in London that will create hundreds of jobs.
The grocer, owned by the John Lewis Partnership, will open the doors on a Little Waitrose next to Vauxhall station next month and will introduce another by Monument Tube in August. These add to its 36 existing convenience stores, including in Clapham and Kensington, but Waitrose declined to name the locations of the other eight openings planned in 2013.
The chain, which has 290 stores including Little Waitrose, will also open a full-size supermarket in Greenwich, within the New Capital Quay development now being built. The 11 openings this year will create 700 jobs.
Waitrose director of development Nigel Keen said: “London is an important part of our heritage and this is another major milestone for our business. It demonstrates our ambition to continue increasing our presence and improving our accessibility to those in the capital who wish to shop with us.”
Waitrose posted sales up by 8.3% in the week to March 16, but its stablemate department store chain John Lewis suffered a rare 0.3% dip in sales to £62.9 million, dragged down by this year’s “extended winter weather”.
Both Sainsbury’s and Tesco have major convenience store operations in the capital, while Morrisons has been playing catch-up by bagging scores of smaller sites from the failed chains HMV, Blockbuster and Jessops.
