Holland & Barrett is targeting garden centres and other secondary locations as part of its continued store rollout.
This week, H&B opened a new concession trial at Gates, an independent garden centre in Oakham, Leicestershire. A second is set to open in Cardiff, at Pugh’s Garden Centre, next month, The Grocer understands.
The smaller-format stores stock a limited range of H&B lines. It includes core ranges of vitamins, health supplements and wellness products, as well as a limited range of fresh food, chilled drinks and ambient snacks.
The openings are the latest in H&B’s turnaround and expansion plan. The majority of its existing stores are located on high streets or in busy shopping centres, however it is increasingly targeting smaller-format sites in secondary retail locations, or in supermarkets, in order to reach new customers.
In July, it launched the first of a new concession partnership with fashion retailer Next to stock 1,000 H&B lines in three of Next’s stores. It followed the restart of a concessions rollout with Tesco in October, as revealed by The Grocer. H&B also has an ongoing travel concession partnership with WH Smith.
“At Holland & Barrett, we have made some exciting developments with our concession store formats this year, investing in trialling new formats and locations where we can reach new customers and bring our wellness solutions directly into the community and where they are already shopping,” said Stephen Williams, Holland & Barrett head of property.
“For launch, we’ve curated a range of our top products, offering own-brand ranges and leading brand products across food, sports nutrition and trending beauty, as well as offering innovative services with on-hand health and wellness advice from our team of expert trained colleagues.”
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Owner LetterOne has ploughed £70m into H&B’s store estate, food offer and supply chain as part of its turnaround strategy, following its £700m debt buyout deal in November 2022.
In its latest accounts published to Companies House in July, executive chairman Alex Gourlay revealed H&B would “invest in at least one shop a day” over the next two years as part of the next stage of the plan.
Pre-tax losses widened from £59.6m to £65.3m, mainly due to costs incurred by the investment.
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