House of Fraser's (HoF) renewed appetite for food retailing will see a second World of Food area open in its Croydon store next year.
Deputy chief executive and finance director David Adams said: 'We have made the decision to put World of Food in Croydon and other suitable new stores.
'Birmingham has been up and running for three weeks, but its too early to tell which bits are successful. It may well be that Croydon is different.'
The£5 million World of Food flagship in the refurbished Birmingham store heralded a push back into food, which could become the fourth plank of HoF's cosmetics, fashion and home offer.
The retailer has developed 250 private-label products and plans to kit out older stores with either World of Food or smaller food halls.
Meanwhile, House of Fraser has launched an investigation into the 'malicious' leak that precipitated its interim results announcement.
The retailer revealed a reduced first half pre-tax loss before exceptionals of£3.9 million on sales of£418.2 million.
The retailer also announced the disposal of its Paisley branch, one of the 12 stores at the tail-end of its portfolio. 'It's not a fire sale,' said Adams. 'We will not sell unless we get the value of the income stream going forward.'
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