WHSmith is considering rolling out hot food options to its travel and hospital stores, after launching its own-brand food-to-go range in travel stores in May.
The move comes after the business said it had witnessed “record weeks” for food sales since introducing its Smith’s Family Kitchen range of 34 products.
Speaking to The Grocer, the retailer’s managing director Andrew Harrison said: “We don’t have as much of a cohesive breakfast offer as we’d like, and we know that that is a really important day part.”
He added: “Over the next couple of years, we’ll be starting to dial up some of those options. The next year for sure is about optimising what we’ve got.”
Harrison said WHSmith had already begun trialling the new format at its Churchill Hospital store in Oxfordshire, and that the initiative was in “early days”.
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WHSmith has been pushing ahead with its strategy to become a one-stop-shop for consumers on the move, with the plan increasing its average transaction values and returns in its latest results.
However, the executive insisted: “Don’t get me wrong, we’re not talking about becoming a sort of fast food outlet, it’s just trying to broaden the range of options we can offer our customers.
“Just over 10 years ago we didn’t sell food, we now do 11 million meal deals a year. We sell 80,000 different combinations of product in our meal deals every week. That’s the scale we’ve got to. As we look forward, we just want to continue to make sure we understand what our customers’ requirements are and fulfil those needs.”
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