Sainsbury is to introduce its new food store concept into Glasgow's Buchanan Galleries. The food giant has selected the #200m shopping centre, under construction at the top of Buchanan Street, as the launch site for its new city centre food store.
With some 10,700 sq ft of sales space and 7300 sq ft of storage, the shop is much smaller than a traditional Sainsbury supermarket. It is aimed at customers who shop in Marks & Spencer or in Tesco Metro.
Following the Glasgow launch, a series of similar stores will be open in major UK cities. Sainsbury's regional development executive, Fiona Thomson, said: ''We feel that Buchanan Galleries presents exactly the right quality of development and location that we need for these brand new stores. We have been actively adapting our store formats in response to customer demand and the location with frontage to Buchanan Street is perfect for this concept.''
Sainsbury joins a growing number of other retailers signed up for the new shopping centre who are either a first for Scotland, or offer new forms of retailing. These include: H&M, Virgin Vie, Jane Norman and Nike.
These are in addition to John Lewis Partnership, Habitat and Next who are all contracted for what will be their largest stores in Scotland. Gap is also taking space, the first time the fashion retailer has taken a second site in any city, outside of London.
Sandy Cook, chief executive of the Buchanan Partnership (a joint venture between AMP Asset Management and Slough estates plc) developers of Buchanan Galleries, said: ''With the Galleries now more than 80% pre-let and heightened competition for units from retailers, we are now focusing on refining our tenant mix. Sainsbury's arrival with the new store format is an integral part of this strategy.''
Construction of Buchanan Galleries, which includes a 2000 space car park, is on schedule. John Lewis is already fitting out its store for opening in March 1999.
The agents for Buchanan Partnership are Strutt & Parker (London), Healey and Baker, and Montagu Evans
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