British supermarket giant Sainsbury’s has acquired ten leasehold stores from HHGL, which trades as Homebase, for conversion into Sainsbury’s supermarkets.

Part of the retailer’s ‘Next Level Sainsbury’s’ plan, the move is expected to offer more food choice to Sainsbury’s growing customer base.

The new stores are in the supermarket’s ‘key target locations’ and will grow Sainsbury’s supermarket coverage across England, Northern Ireland and Scotland, bringing its products to new customers and communities. The new locations mean that around 400,000 more people will be located within a 10-minute drive of a Sainsbury’s supermarket.

The Homebase stores Sainsbury’s is acquiring are Birmingham Sutton Coldfield, Bromsgrove, Cromer, Derry/Londonderry, Fareham, Inverurie, Lowestoft, Newark, Omagh and Rugby.

Once converted, the shop floor area of the stores will range from around 15,000 to 40,000 square feet and will add a total of approximately 235,000 square feet to its supermarket trading space.

The gross investment value of the acquisition, (the total capitalised cost of leases, acquisition premium and fit-out costs), is expected to be approximately £130 million.

The conversion of the Homebase sites into supermarkets is expected to create around 1,000 new Sainsbury’s roles – the supermarket says it will guarantee an interview for any Homebase colleagues who are placed at risk of redundancy as a result of the transaction.

Simon Roberts, CEO of Sainsbury’s, said: "Sainsbury’s food business continues to go from strength to strength as we push ahead with our ‘Next Level Sainsbury’s’ plan. We have the best combination of value and quality in the market and that’s winning us customers from all our key competitors and driving consistent growth in volume market share. We want to build on this momentum which is why we are growing our supermarket footprint. Our ambition is to be customers’ first choice for food and these new stores will showcase some of the best that Sainsbury’s supermarkets have to offer to even more communities around the country.”

The transaction is expected to complete in early September and he first of these stores is set to open next summer, with Sainsbury’s hoping to complete the conversion of all sites by the end of 2025.

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