Three more Simply Fresh Food Hall sites are to open following the success of the concept’s launch in Manchester, said the symbol group.

The concept combines elements of a traditional convenience store with restaurant-style dining, such as food stalls and a seated area. 

Mital Morar was the first retailer to run a store under the Simply Fresh Food Hall brand when he launched his 6,000sq ft site in Manchester last summer.  

Simply Fresh creative director Davinder Jheeta told Better Retailing three further Food Hall sites are to open in Cheltenham, Birmingham and London this year. 

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“The sites in Cheltenham and Birmingham are scheduled to open before summer and the site in London will be based in Islington,” he says. “We’re terming the site in London a ‘boutique grocery’, as it will be 5,000sq ft with a butchers, a deli counter and three food stalls.

“We’ve got the right captive audience in the area for that. It’s a site where we’ll be able to sell caviar.”

Jheeta added the company is in talks with an unnamed company to enable one of its Little Fresh sites to operate entirely with self-checkouts and no shop-floor staff. 

The Little Fresh brand combines a CTN-style format with food to go. 

“The feedback we received from customers who have visited the existing Little Fresh sites is that they want food to go, regardless of how small the shop is,” said Jheeta.  

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