Co-op Food chief executive Matt Hood has ambitions to open up to 400 hot food counters from its ‘On The Go’ micro store concept, and convert a number of existing Co-op stores to the new ‘next gen’ format.
Speaking to Retail Week following the debut of its latest micro store format Co-op On The Go, Hood said his long-term ambition for the food-to-go concept was to open as many as 400 counters serving hot food.
The retailer plans to grow the new format by opening new stores, retrofitting existing Co-op stores which overindex on food-to-go sales and by adding On The Go counters within existing larger stores.
Hood told Retail Week: “I’d like to get to 300-400 of these – that’s my long-term ambition, though my team will want to be more cautious! The key point is that these don’t all have to be brand new acquisitions. They can be repurposing of stores we have that aren’t maximising their potential, particularly in city centres.”
“We’ll take this model and retrofit it into some of our London shops because they’re slightly bigger – just over 1,000 square feet – but the mission is very much the same. Take Holborn, just around from the tube station – 60-70% of its sales are food-to-go, yet we’re still setting it up as a convenience store rather than optimising for what customers actually want.”
The new stores will feature Co-op’s first “serve-over counters”, which the retailer said will offer a “more personal and brand-focused customer experience” and menus that “change throughout the day” – covering breakfast, lunch and dinner.
The formats will also feature Costa Coffee stands, and the retailer has drawn inspiration from “the best of European and Far East trends” to “meet consumer demand for fast, high-quality food on the go”.
The first store opened in Solihull last week, and the retailer has plans for 15 more openings within the coming months.
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