Parfetts Cash & Carry has unveiled its long-awaited debut in convenience retailing at a site bought last year to stop Tesco snapping it up. The wholesaler has officially launched the Local 4U concept at the company-owned site in New Mills, near its Stockport HQ, after spending a year and a half extending and rebranding the store. It is now hoping to add a further eight sites in the next 12 months before offering the fascia to independent retailers. Managing director Steve Parfett admitted the project had involved more work than anticipated. But he said its efforts on the project over the past 18 months had provided invaluable experience of the reality of convenience retailing. By operating its own stores, the company would be able to improve its own support for independent retailers, he claimed. "The store was taken on as a project to save the site being taken over by Tesco and retain its independence," he said. "We have put a lot of work into developing the format, the Local 4U concept and getting the proposition right for local customers. "We have now put the ground work in at the New Mills shop to be able to confidently roll out the Local 4U format and build on our initial success." Future company-owned Local 4U stores are expected to be located in the East Midlands and South Yorkshire and will be serviced by Parfetts' Somercotes depot in Derbyshire. The company has set up an operations team based at Somercotes, led by newly appointed retail operations manager Richard Mason, to search for new sites.

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