Waitrose acquires 5 Safeway stores from Wm Morrison |
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Sat, 13 Aug 2005 06:05
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LONDON: Retailer Wm Morrison Supermarkets Plc is selling five of its former Safeway stores to Waitrose for an undisclosed amount. Waitrose had earlier in March 2004 acquired 19 stores from Morrisons which marked the former's foray into the north from its concentration in London and home counties.
The deal is subject to approval by the Office of Fair Trading.
Morrison said these five stores, valued around 30.6 million pounds, were not suitable for conversion into its format.
Waitrose, a constituent of the John Lewis Partnership, has all along been active in the south-east England, which accounted for more than half of its total sales. Now, the company is edging towards its target of becoming a national chain of supermarket stores. With the addition of these five stores, located at Durham, East Grinstead in West Sussex, Lewes in East Sussex, St Katherine's Dock in London and Wilmslow in Cheshire, the chain will have total of 173 outlets. All of the five stores have areas between 17,000 sq. ft. and 26,000 sq. ft. and will be fully converted into Waitrose stores by early November. Some 600 staff members of these stores will now be part of Waitrose.
Waitrose's managing director Steven Esom said the former Morrisons stores, which were converted into Waitrose outlets, have performed well and this has proven that "we can trade successfully in new territories".
He said the current acquisition is part of the firm's strategy to make Waitrose a national supermarket brand.
According to recent market share statistics, Waitrose enjoys 4 percent of the multiple grocery market.
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