Waitrose’s latest expansion route will take it to motorway service stations. Will it knock Marks & Spencer off its post?

When celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal gave his magic touch to the egg and chips style motorway cafe Little Chef, cars clogged up the A303 near Winchester as hungry fans queued up to get a taste of his wares.

Upmarket grocer Waitrose will be hoping to achieve such magic when it opens its two food shops in Welcome Break service stations next month.

The move takes Waitrose into new territory and is part of its ambitious expansion plan. Over the past year Waitrose has opened two new formats - market town and convenience - and motorway services is the next string to its bow.

The shops will offer both snack foods such as sandwiches and salads, along with products shoppers can take home for the evening, such as ready meals. And if the trial goes well, Waitrose expects to roll-out to the majority of the 24 Welcome Break sites.

Waitrose has always suffered from its lack of geographical presence and has lagged behind M&S in terms of number of sites. By trialling new formats, it will be able to find out what works and expand its presence much more quickly.

While some may find it difficult to understand why you’d want to buy upmarket food from a service station, the move has worked for M&S. Sir Stuart Rose has put a clutch of Simply Food shops up for sale but none of them are the service station shops. They clearly work for them.

While M&S breathed a sigh of relief this week when it revealed better than expected figures, it still needs to sharpen its act up in food. Waitrose - among others - is breathing down its neck and if its flexibility with formats proves successful, it could become a much bigger threat.

For Waitrose, this latest move proves it is a dynamic business. With new formats and innovations such as its value line Essential it is adapting to the market. It could well turn out to be the Fat Duck of the retail industry in its popularity stakes.

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