Waitrose has announced ambitious plans to add over 1,000 food outlets to its portfolio over the next five years.
The upmarket grocery chain said it plans to increase its number of supermarket stores to 250 by the end of the year, and then add a further 40 stores a year between 2011 and 2015.
It also hopes to create an additional 1,000 outlets through partner sites within Welcome Break motorway service stations, Boots stores and Shell filling stations, taking the total number of branches that sell Waitrose food to 1,450 by 2015.
Speaking to The Sunday Telegraph, Waitrose managing director Mark Price said: “Today, we have 231 Waitrose stores, nine Welcome Break outlets, seven Boots stores and six Shell garages.
“There’s the potential to add 220 more Waitrose shops and probably 1,000 partner outlets, so if the economic models of all of them were to work, I think we could have up to 1,450 branches in five years’ time.”
The planned new stores will result in thousands of new job opportunities for people across the UK.
