Food retailer Waitrose is opening a convenience store in Alderey Edge.
The John Lewis-owned grocer is opening a 6,200 sq ft shop at The Parade where it will occupy units 1-6, which is everything apart from The Co-operative store.
Waitrose are hoping to open their new store, which will create approximately 40 jobs, at the beginning of August.
A planning application has also been submitted to Cheshire East for a new shop front, signage, plant area and bin store.
John Leighton, Director at Bluemantle who own the property, said "We are delighted to announce that we have secured Waitrose to open a new store at The Parade. We believe Waitrose will complement our existing tenant The Co-op and also reduce leakage to Handforth Dean and Wilmslow.
"We anticipate a positive impact on the whole of the village as the improved offer along with the recent completion of the bypass makes the village centre more accessible - customer dwell time should also improve."
Jon Arnold, Head of Convenience at Waitrose, said "We are delighted to have the opportunity to achieve a long-standing ambition to have a store in Alderley Edge.
"We are confident the investment we are making can play a positive role in the long term, not just through the creation of new jobs and supporting local projects, but also by attracting new shoppers to the village."
"Waitrose will also commit £6,000 each year to local charities and projects nominated by customers as part of its Community Matters initiative."
At this stage we are unclear about the plans of the existing tenants but we will keep you informed as we hear.
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
Yes John, we will now have three national supermarket chains selling the same products within a 100 metre radius....genius!!!!
It seems that nobody cares about villages anymore and only tiny places like Prestbury or Chelford can retain their character - next potential target?
On the jobs side, as from this week over 1.5 m people will be getting a letter to be assesed to see if they are "fit to work", so this will help them - Good Luck Waitrose !
1) we already have two supermarkets located next to each other so why is another supermarket really more beneficial
2) by losing small/independant businesses like Fruitcake, The Mandarin and HSBC it feels like we are losing the charactersitics of an interesting & diverse village
It appears that Waitrose already have the necessary planning consents to move into The Parade...it's a shame & frustrating to think that other small businesses find it difficult to do the same.
Good luck to Waitrose in the venture, it's got to be better than Tesco unloading at all times of day on London Road, wasn't there a planning stipulation saying Tesco deliveries had to be before a certain time?
As for the landlord vs. tenants scenario, I must say that this situation reminds me of the recent (Mar 2010) closing down of Starbucks in the Royal George development in Knutsford. At the time, it was suggested (by the local papers) that trade was so tough that even a giant like Starbucks had to leave Knutsford. The reality was quite different: Starbucks had signed a 10-year lease in 2007 and was soon after subjected to numerous rent increases at the hand of its landlord, a London-based company that owns all of the retail units within the development. In March last year, I was told that the landlord had some very set views regarding the Starbucks unit (it wanted to turn it into an art gallery instead). Rent increases drove Starbucks out of it, for it did not make business sense to continue. Lo and behold, three months later an art gallery opened in place of the coffee house. Similarly, Via Via’s owner has been rather vocal in criticising the landlord by stating in The Knutsford Guardian last year that the new location (the Royal George development at large) had been pedalled as absolutely ‘prime’, while trading conditions are all but (notice, in fact, how the local Jaeger has now downgraded itself to a discount outlet). Apparently, Via Via’s rent amounts to £30,000 per year, as stated in the paper at the time.
Two considerations can be made here:
1- Many people become extremely vocal when supermarkets (or other retail chains in general) expand. They are accused of killing independent trade and often of ruining the landscape as well. However, it seems to me that retail chains flourish because they give the vast majority of people exactly what they want where they want it. In other words, if Waitrose (or Starbucks, or Nero, or fill-in-the-blank) found itself deserted, it would quickly up sticks. But… are people putting their money where their mouths are, I wonder? If they shopped at independent stores (when and where they have them), as consistently and valiantly as they are prepared to air their views to the papers, not so many would find themselves unable to trade and soon after out of business. It’s not the presence of big retail chains per se that kill local trade, it’s the shoppers who spend their money there;
2- Alderley may look like a village (just) but it really isn’t. It is becoming a suburb of Manchester, as some other readers above have noted. Equally, plentiful landlords are upping business rents to the point whereby only a supermarket, a coffee chain, Boots, WHSmith or equivalent can afford to trade, even in places as small as Alderley and Knutsford. A few years ago, Knutsford people were complaining that they had no choice insofar as groceries were concerned, as the only larger store in town was Booths. Today there is Booths, the Co-op, McCall’s, a Sainsbury’s local and Waitrose is currently working in the site once occupied by the now defunct Blockbusters. On a slightly grander scale, consider Cathedral Street in Manchester city centre: when Heal’s closed down, only a company as financially successful as Hugo Boss could take over the vacant, enormous retail unit. I am sure its rent far exceeds £30,000 per annum.
I feel sympathetic for the other unit owners who look like they will have to re-locate and although there are other empty premises in AE I suspect that they are expensive to rent/
lease, plus the cost associated with a refit if they do move somewhere new.
Waitrose do tend to be more ethical than many larger organisations and the news of new jobs and the sizeable donation to AE charities is a tangible indication of this I guess, some cynics I guess will call this a bribe. It will make the parade more presentable as it does look tired at that end and the Co Op refurbishment really lifted the cosmetic look, hopefully the bar will be raised again by Waitrose. The recent new Tarmac helps a lot - I wonder if that is a first benefit of getting a Waitrose and was done to help them sign on the dotted line (in part anyway).
Some Googling on Waitrose impact on local communities throws up conflicting results, some indicating it is positive and actually helps attract increased foot-fall to communities and hence pulls in other new, smaller traders, and some inevitable negative saying the opposite, I guess only time will tell here in AE. One entry I found even said a Waitrose store actually helped keep property prices up-beat so the Estate agents will be pleased at least!
It is really sad to see a cafe like Fruitcake being shut because of 'bigger fish' - it's the most popular cafe in the village especially for families and young people.....
It is virtually the same size as the store opening in Alderley Edge in a few months so it was very interesting to see what is planned for the village.
The interior was surprisingly spacious, with a wide uncluttered entrance and aisles and a very broad product range.
I thought my article on knutsford.com might be of interest to some - http://bit.ly/mTVJU1.
The range of products was excellent, some more unusual quality lines and a well laid out store with friendly helpful staff.