Tesco gives city taste of first Scottish non-food warehouse

Published on Tuesday 1 July 2008 10:29

TESCO is to open its first Scottish non-food "warehouse" store in the Capital, the supermarket giant has revealed today.

The firm said the current Wickes home improvement store on Newcraighall Road would be transformed into a new two-storey Tesco Homeplus.

It will feature all the products the firm already sells, apart from food in a two-storey store with over 50,000 square feet of space.

Commercial property experts say the move by Tesco is a sign that supermarkets are focusing even more on the non-food market in a bid to keep profits growing at the rates seen in recent years.

Commenting on the new Edinburgh store, Tesco's corporate affairs manager for Scotland, Jennifer Duncan, said: "We have been developing our Homeplus format for a number of years and are pleased to be launching our next generation Homeplus store in a number of UK locations.

"Our new Homeplus store at Newcraighall will allow us to provide customers with a unique shopping experience and will be the first of its kind in Scotland."

A pilot scheme saw the company trial the format in seven locations in the UK after having seen the brand perform strongly in Korea.

Following the success of the pilot scheme, it has now decided to roll out the concept, with three new "next generation" versions of the brand due to open in the current year.

The first new Homeplus store will open in Bristol next week and the firm will then open the units in Edinburgh and Nottingham on November 24.

It is expected the Wickes store Homeplus is due to replace will cease trading in early August.

Tom Johnston, head of retail for property firm Colliers CRE in Scotland, said firms such as Tesco needed to find new ways of continuing profit and market growth, and that he expected more stores would follow in Scotland.

"It is fair to say they are all looking at anything that can increase their market share," he said, adding that Asda was making similar moves with its non-food Living brand.

Tesco has also trialled a non-food city centre "department store" concept and is expected to be in the market for new city centre sites within Scotland. Mr Johnston said: "Planners are encouraging big stores to come into town to help regenerate town centres. I think there's a likelihood they will be looking at Edinburgh."

Tesco also recently moved into the garden centre market after buying just under 95 per cent of the shares in Lasswade-based Dobbies Garden Centres.