Tesco’s convenience store chain One Stop is to open its third depot in June to keep pace with its ambitious expansion plans.

The 120,000 sq ft depot, in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, will initially serve around 200 One Stop stores in the North of England, dispatching more than 600 deliveries a week - the equivalent of 1.5 million cases. However, Tesco said plans were in place for the depot to eventually supply as many as 500 c-stores.

The new depot follows Tesco’s announcement earlier this month that the 640-store One Stop chain was piloting a franchise model for independent retailers. The trial is expected to expand to between six and 10 stores after the pilot store reported a “considerable increase in turnover”.

Tesco also revealed last week that it had opened 26 One Stops in the year to 23 February. It also pledged to focus its new store openings on the convenience sector over the next 12 months at the expense of larger out-of-town sites.

One Stop is currently recruiting for 130 jobs at the depot in warehouse, driving and administration positions.

“We’re really pleased to be creating these new jobs for the local community,” said One Stop CEO Tony Reed. “We’re a growing business and we’re excited about giving people the opportunity to get on at One Stop. Wakefield has an established distribution network, and great transport links, which is why it’s the ideal location for our new distribution centre.”

One Stop has two other depots - in Walsall and Southampton.

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