Waitrose is to open 14 stores this year, including seven supermarkets and seven Little Waitrose convenience stores.
It is also relocating one supermarket and carrying out two major extensions to existing branches.
Together, the moves will add almost 230,000 sq ft of selling space to the estate, continuing the Waitrose expansion of recent years.
The supermarkets will open in Wollaton, Nottinghamshire; Milngavie, East Dumbartonshire; Bagshot, Surrey; Oxford; King’s Cross, which will incorporate a new cookery school; Basingstoke, Hampshire; and Guildford, Surrey.
Waitrose Horsham will be relocated, doubling the size of the current supermarket, and the branches in Saffron Walden and Bayswater will both undergo major redevelopments.
It also plans to add a new Little Waitrose in Heathfield, East Sussex and a further six convenience stores in new locations in the South East.
The business will be also be creating additional roles in its distribution department in order to service its expanding number of branches.
Waitrose’s director of development, Nigel Keen, said: “Our expansion story continues as we take the brand to more customers and invest in our omni-channel approach.”
Tim Vallance, head of retail at JLL, said: “Over the next few years we will start to see the convenience store arena emerging as the battleground between the big four and the discount retailers. The 2015 fightback has clearly begun with Morrisons and Tesco analysing their portfolios and offloading non-core business.”
View Waitrose supermarket opening locations in a full screen map
