Holland & Barrett to trial superstore format as it eyes former Phones 4u shops

The health food and beauty retailer revealed it wants to open a store of between 6,000 sq ft to 7,000 sq ft shop, which would enable it to expand its beauty and frozen food offer.

Holland & Barrett’s store sizes vary in size with average stores at 1,000 sq ft, but over the past year the retailer has been opening larger stores and relocating smaller stores to between 2,000 and 3,500 sq ft.

The new format would be double the size of the largest stores it currently operates.

Holland & Barrett chief executive Peter Aldis said: “I think we can go further. We could do more on the cosmetics counter. We have a big range of Holland & Barrett products that are part of our ethos, and we could do more.”

He added that it would be used to offer more across its chilled and frozen range, which is small in current stores but Holland & Barrett is extending online.

Holland & Barrett is also eyeing up to 20 former Phones 4u stores – which tend to be small sites – after the mobile phone retailer collapsed last month, shuttering its store estate.

The retailer today revealed it had plans to open 40 UK stores this year and 30 across Europe, as it posted EBITDA up 8% to £130m in the year to September 2014 and sales increased 8% to £513m.