Waitrose all set to open in Crouch End

nlnews@archant.co.uk
16 July 2009

NATIONAL retailer Waitrose will open in Crouch End in October after ploughing millions into a new store and creating up to 60 jobs.

The supermarket chain announced on Monday that it

has acquired the former Woolworths shop unit at 35-39 The Broadway.

It follows weeks of anticipation about the site's future after news spread that a deal was imminent.

Waitrose will take over the 6,230 square foot store, which has been empty since January, in September and plans to open its doors after a multi-million pound refit the following month.

Nigel Keen, Waitrose director of development, said: "We have wanted to come to Crouch End for a long time and believe we have found a location that will allow us to attract shoppers to the high street and trade successfully.

"Through revitalising a vacant building, we will not only create new jobs, but provide a wider choice of shopping services for the local community."

Up to 60 jobs will be created with recruitment beginning this week.

Crouch End councillor David Winskill welcomed the news.

He said: "It's obviously very good news that such a landmark site is finally going to be occupied and that 60 jobs will be created, hopefully the balance of them will go to local people.

"There are however implications for independent food sector shops that have been serving Crouch End in some cases for generations. I hope that the overall effect of Waitrose's arrival will be to attract many more people to Crouch End and that all shops, particularly the smaller ones, will share in that increased prosperity."

The new store will be the first to open in the capital and the third in the country under Waitrose's new "convenience store" model - a label attached to smaller stores similar to Tesco Express units.

The first convenience stores opened in Nottingham last December and Bristol in March.