Waitrose is to launch an in-store restaurant next year following the success of smaller cafes within its supermarkets.

The grocer will launch a waiter-service eatery at the end of the next year as it seeks to attract shoppers to stores.

Rival Tesco recently snapped up the Giraffe family restaurant group, which it plans to integrate into its store locations and has bought stakes in a coffee shop and a bakery.

Waitrose managing director Mark Price told The Daily Mail: “It is all about developing the role of branches in an era where online shopping is developing so strongly. We are coming up with new ideas to reinforce our commitment to offer the best possible service and give extra reasons to come into our shops.”

The restaurant will also showcase some of the food on sale in store.

A Waitrose spokesman said: “It’s just trying something different so people can sit down and have a waiter-service meal rather than self-service – it’s a different concept.”

Waitrose already has 96 cafes in its 293 stores and a tapas bar at Canary Wharf, London.

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