Waitrose has announced ambitious plans to extend its network of convenience stores and reach a wider audience.
The upmarket retailer opened its first two convenience stores in Nottingham and Bristol earlier this year, and is set to open two more in north London and Oxted in Surrey.
However, the supermarket chain believes there is the potential for 300 smaller high street outlets across the UK, which would be similar in size and stock to rival Marks and Spencer ’s Simply Food outlets.
Waitrose currently operates around 215 stores across the UK, but it estimates there are about 6.5 million potential customers who do not have easy access to one of its outlets.
In addition, the John Lewis -owned grocer is planning to strengthen its ties with Welcome Break by adding a further nine grocery outlets at Welcome Break motorway service stations over the coming months.
A partnership with health and beauty giant Boots is also set to lead to a trial of products being cross-sold in each other’s stores.
The two companies are also in the process of re-branding pharmacies in 13 Waitrose stores to Boots by the end of November.
Mark Price, managing director of Waitrose, said: “By opening up these new channels and formats, we’ll be making Waitrose accessible to more customers in more places and we’ll be able to create thousands of new jobs .”
The announcements come a week after the company reported a 7.4 per cent rise in half-year sales to £2.18bn and a 15.7 per cent increase in first-half operating profits to £121.1m.
