Stelios launches first supermarket EasyFoodStore

SIR Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the founder of EasyJet, is launching a one-store pilot scheme for a budget supermarket chain to take on the likes of Aldi and Lidl, and discounter Poundland, which also sells food.

The EasyFoodstore will operate from the ground floor of a nine-storey office building his EasyGroup has bought in Croydon, south London.

Stelios said yesterday that if the store was successful, the project could be rolled out more widely from 2014.

He said: “I have a feeling there is a gap in the food retail market – a niche below some of the budget operators such as Aldi and Lidl.”

He said his idea was to sell “affordable, basic ‘no brand name’ packet and tinned foods at bargain prices”.