Sava Centre - History - Beyond The SavaCentre Format

Beyond The SavaCentre Format

In 2008, the London Sydenham and Oldbury SavaCentres were re-modelled to trial a launch of a 30,000 sq ft (2,800 m2) non-food offer. This was the first major attempt by Sainsbury's to launch its own substantial non-food offer since the launch of the "Lifestyle" clothing range in 1991. This format became a success, and later in 2008 Sainsbury's announced that it was going to extend as many as 100 existing Sainsbury's Supermarkets to SavaCentre store sizes of 60,000 sq ft (5,600 m2) of sales area or more by 2014, to carry the new non-food offer trialled in the London Sydenham and Oldbury SavaCentres. For example, the Hayes, Middlesex branch was extended from 34,000 sq ft (3,200 m2) to 83,000 sq ft (7,700 m2) in sales area in November 2008. The Kempshott, Basingstoke branch was extended to 71,139 sq ft (6,609.0 m2) of sales area and was both opened and re-opened by Life President Lord Sainsbury of Preston Candover himself in November 1988 and 25 August 2010 respectively.

The largest format of Sainsbury's stores is now branded as the "100k sq ft stores" format, and was launched in September 2010. These stores have sales areas of 95,000 sq ft (8,800 m2) or more and have a 55:45 split between food and non-food. The first three "100k sq ft stores" were launched in Crayford, Lincoln and Stanway, Essex between September and December 2010.