99p Stores is adding fresh meat and vegetables to its range, breaking new ground for a fixed-price discounter.

Fresh chicken and pork will go into stores in 260g packs this week. Root vegetables, including potatoes, will also go on sale. In keeping with its price point, all new lines will sell for 99p.

The range will be expanded and tweaked depending on the season. Summer will see a major push on BBQ favourites and stew packs of veg will make way for salad.

Buoyed by the success of its frozen food trials, commercial director Hussein Lalani said stocking meat and veg was the final piece in the jigsaw for 99p Stores as it works towards becoming a one-stop shop.

And although Lalani acknowledged that selling fresh would be more challenging than ambient, he insisted its existing supply chain could cope with the challenges.

“We will channel a lot of products through our current distributor as we don’t have specialist chilled facilities at our warehouses,” he said. “We will be 
delivering up to four times a week, so pretty regularly. We expect this range to be very popular. We are very excited to get into this new sector of the market.”

The discounter can’t quite match the supermarkets on price though. An equivalent sized pack of Tesco value chicken would sell for around 80p.

The range will go into 50 stores initially, echoing the strategy the company employed for its frozen roll-out. The frozen range is now being expanded to the entire 169-store portfolio. All new stores will have a freezer as standard, and existing stores will be fitted with them soon.

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