Tesco plans to open 150 brand new convenience stores in major expansion

Tesco is planning to open 150 new convenience stores across the UK over the next three years as part of a major expansion.

The supermarket chain announced the plans for its Tesco Express sites last week as it celebrated the 30th anniversary of its convenience store brand. Tesco has over 4,000 supermarket stores overall across the UK.

The supermarket opened the doors of the first Express store in Barnes and Norbury, London in 1994. Most recently, the supermarket chain opened a new Express in Burnt Oak in northwest London. The new site opened close to where Tesco's first-ever site – founded by Jack Cohen – opened in 1929. The supermarket chain has not confirmed where it plans to open any of these new stores.

Tesco managing director of UK stores Kevin Tindall said: “I’m delighted that we have come full circle and returned to the street where it all began, with Jack Cohen’s first store in Burnt Oak. Burnt Oak has a special place in Tesco history, and we’re proud to be serving its local community once again – alongside thousands more across the country.”

Like other supermarket chains, Tesco seems to be putting more focus on its convenience store range over the last year. Most recently, it announced a raft of price cuts on items such as bread, milk, and chicken covering 200 lines in its Express stores. Prices dropped by an average of 10% according to the supermarket chain.

From last week, the price of a four-pint bottle of milk dropped to £1.45 at the grocer’s c-stores, 300g chicken breast portions dropped by 25p to £2.25, and a 200g jar of Tesco Gold Instant Coffee was slashed by 25p to £2.25. Among the branded products cut were Warburton White Sliced Sandwich Rolls, with the price of a six-pack cut by 10p to £1.20, while Domestos Original bleach dropped to £1.19 following an 11p reduction.

Last year, the consumer group Which? launched campaign highlighting that customers who shopped at a supermarket's smaller store was disadvantaged and faced much higher prices then those who shopped at larger sites. The campaign – widely covered by the UK media – did have some success as prices were cut across a range of supermarket chains. However, things are still not equal.

In September this year, a study from Which? found that supermarket convenience stores could cost shoppers up to a fifth more than the same grocery products in the retailer’s full-sized stores. The study found that Tesco shoppers could expect to pay a 10% price difference, and its Clubcard holders had an 11% difference at its convenience outlets compared to its larger ones. Tesco defended its prices by saying their smaller stores were often in city or town centre locations, where their price reflected higher rents, rates and other operating costs.

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