The food retailer will be launching 12 new stores over Christmas (2018) in London with the help of a £9m investment. The launches should take place over a period of 30 days in Southwark, Portman Square, and Hampton Road.
2018 has been a great year for Co-op and the food chain wants to build on that momentum and enter the new year with the same fervour and excitement. Co-op opened more stores in 2018 than any other year in the history of its existence. More than 100 stores were opened across the length and breadth of the UK – a third of them are in the South East and London. Opening 12 new stores in London signifies Co-op’s keenness to look for more locations so that it could positively impact local life even more.
The retail climate in the UK in 2018 has not necessarily been the greatest. In fact, quite a few big-name brands have had to shut down stores to tackle the hostile business scenario. Co-op, quite surprisingly, has managed to buck the trend by opening the right outlets, in the right places.
Co-op’s goal has always been to come closer to its customers and members, and not make the patrons come to them. The food chain has firmly believed in offering what buyers want, where and when they need it. Moreover, Co-op’s continued investment and efforts into maintaining and enhancing the overall quality of its own-label offerings have paved way for a change in how the buyer community perceives its brand, thereby causing a change in buyer shopping habits.
The stores are expected to roll right after Co-op announces £45m to build a distribution centre in Bedfordshire, which would help support the food chain’s growth in the South East and London. As aforementioned, the set of locations to get the stores first include Southwark’s Rotherhithe Street, Hampton Road in Twickenham, and Westminster’s Portman Square.
Co-op states the new shops in Southwark, Portman Square, and Hampton Road would create several hundred jobs. These locations would focus more on healthy, fresh foods, essentials and meal ideas. Once these products start to do well, a lot more varieties of food would be added to the mix. Not to mention, the stores would be laid out to let buyers have the best in-store experience.
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