Convenience Stores, Tesco Express

"The manufacture of identical stores across the UK also allows us to increase operational efficiencies enabling staff to focus on serving customers."

The Requirement

Tesco, the UK's biggest supermarket retailer, has a two-year development programme to create up to 150 new stores on Esso petrol forecourts. This is bringing convenience shopping and Tesco quality and value to residential and suburban areas nationwide.

Customers benefit from an in-store bakery, ATM machine, air conditioning and the availability of around 2,500 product lines, including fresh fruit and vegetables, ready meals, sandwiches, snacks, frozen and chilled foods.

The Solution

Tesco formed a partnership with Yorkon to build around 49 'Express' convenience stores across the UK in just 12 months. The orders are worth in the region of £10m. Yorkon is now sole modular supplier to Tesco Express.

Following completion of an extensive product development process, Yorkon introduced a specially designed building module for Tesco Express. It is now used to create standardised convenience stores providing 2000sqft or 2500sqft of retail space.

The stores are manufactured at Yorkon's production centre in York using the modular building method, which combines speed, quality, flexibility, cost control and safety on site.

Each convenience store is delivered to site by road as 7 or 8 12m long steel-framed modules, which are craned onto pre-prepared foundations in just one day. Checkouts, cigarette gantries, freezers, chillers, toilets and tiled floors are all pre-installed in York to ensure faster completion on site and improved quality.

The first Tesco Express stores to be built by Yorkon were located at South Oxhey in Hertfordshire, Olton near Birmingham and Chadwell St Mary's in Essex.

Comments from the Client

Guy Digby, Property Programme Director - Tesco Express

"Our aim is to deliver stores which meet the changing needs of our customers and to provide a pleasant working environment for our staff. We have explored the benefits of modular construction, which offers guaranteed quality, is significantly quicker and, with volume, is more cost-effective.

The manufacture of identical stores across the UK also allows us to increase operational efficiencies enabling staff to focus on serving customers."