Morrisons will open a store in Royal Tunbridge Wells next month, six years after it was forced to close a store there when it failed to win over shoppers in the posh Kent town.

The retailer will open the store on 23 April as one of its next generation Store of the Future formats, which have a major focus on fresh food.

Morrisons admitted it had failed to make it work in the town previously. At the time, Morrisons was struggling with the Safeway integration and had been forced to issue its first profits warning in 36 years amid headlines that it did not understand the needs of shoppers in the south of England, where most Safeway stores were located.

One of the main criticisms had been that Morrisons did not stock a wide enough range of fresh produce or some of the more exotic goods southern shoppers were used to such as Lemongrass.

The new store will stock more than 500 lines of fresh produce including purple potatoes, white asparagus and five different types of chilli. Morrisons will also be introducing ice beds and misting technology to optimise the freshness of its fruit and vegetables, following a tial at its Kirksall store in Leeds.

“We can’t wait to open the doors and show the people of Royal Tunbridge Wells Morrisons like they have never seen it before,” said store general manager Stuart Marlow. “This really is one of the best supermarkets in the region and puts the theatre back into grocery.”

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