Tesco to open more convenience stores as it snaps up Amazon Fresh sites

Tesco has revealed plans to expand its Express network with another 70 stores, including five former Amazon Fresh sites.

The supermarket giant said it will open the new convenience store sites by March next year, following 60 Tesco Express openings in 2025.

Its new shops will include five former Amazon Fresh stores bought by Tesco across London, in Kensington High Street, Hounslow, Moorgate, Aldgate East and Wembley, which will all reopen as Tesco Express stores before the summer.

The US tech group announced last September it was closing all of its Amazon Fresh shops, shutting the 19 remaining sites as it shifts operations back towards its online business.

Amazon said at the time it planned to convert five of these into Whole Foods stores.

Tesco already has just over 2,000 Express stores in the UK and Ireland.

It said other new locations include in Bickington, Devon, Pontrhydyrun, Wales, Strabane, Northern Ireland and Wallyford in Scotland.

The group is also planning on opening two large stores in Scotland this year – in Pitlochry and Heartlands – following two superstore launches at the end of last year in Ripon and Harrogate in North Yorkshire.

Nick Johnson, Tesco group property director, said: “As we grow our store network we’re delighted to have the opportunity to serve even more people, in even more communities.”

The supermarket sector is pushing ahead with further convenience store rollouts amid a trend for shoppers to make fewer big store trips and more regular purchases from local stores.