Safeway to expand stores - Brief Article

Eurofood, August 31, 2000

UK supermarket chain Safeway has said that it intends to improve and expand its stores as part of a three year program, which could also see the introduction of non food products into Safeway stores. The project will involve around 100 stores and could cost up to 500m [pounds sterling] (821m [European Dollar]).

Safeway stores have generally always been smaller than those of other large chains, so an improvement in size should help the group's performance. It also hopes that strengthening its non-food product range will benefit them. Possible areas include selling cookware and clothing, but no definite decisions have yet been taken. Industry analysts believe that the group will struggle to differentiate itself from its competitors as some of them already have distinctive experience in non-food product sectors. Safeway's plans fit the continuing trend of supermarkets selling goods other than food to try and get ahead in the market.