Supermarkets hit by convenience store opening curb turn to pubs

Convenience stores have helped the supermarkets to boost sales while their larger sites lose customers as fewer households do a regular weekly shop

Supermarkets have turned to former pubs, causing campaigns and protests in some areas (AFP/Getty)

Leading supermarkets could be forced to slow the expansion of their lucrative convenience store portfolios when regulations coming into force next month make it harder for them to convert local pubs.

New rules will give extra powers to local authorities to decide whether the sites should be given protected status. Residents and campaigners have complained that supermarkets are destroying the historical make-up of high streets.

Convenience stores have helped the supermarkets to boost sales while their larger sites lose customers as fewer households do a regular weekly shop. But with high-street space becoming more sought-after, supermarkets have turned to former pubs, causing campaigns and protests in some areas.

Thomas Pearson, commercial property partner at JMW Solicitors, has warned that the move could stall the advance of retailers’ convenience store ambitions. He said: “This is not terminal for planned schemes but it is a significant bump in the road for retailers looking to exploit the commercial merits of convenience stores.

“In effect, it means that the regulars of pubs which might have not already been listed as community assets will have time to object to plans and send schemes back to the drawing board.”

He explained that he had seen a huge rise in supermarkets looking at converting pubs. He has helped to complete 30 pub-to-store conversions in the last two years, but has dealt with 25 in the last few months alone.

There has been a huge rise in supermarkets looking at converting pubs (Ben Birchall/PA Wire)

Some conversions have been welcomed, and breweries have used the opportunity to offload underperforming or shut pubs, including Marston’s, which sold 63 to Co-op last year. Supermarkets also argue that it creates local jobs.

However, some areas have seen strong opposition from local residents, and the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) pressure group is appealing against several decisions.

Under the new rules schemes will be blocked if pubs earmarked for redevelopment have been listed as assets of community value (ACVs). More than 600 pubs have already been designated as ACVs, and Camra plans to treble that number this year.

Pubs that do not have protected status could also be saved with councils forcing a 56-day moratorium on retailers and their development partners to allow locals to argue for the pubs to be saved.

Mr Pearson said: “Retailers on whose projects we are involved fully understand the need to protect communities but question whether it’s necessarily something that is in the best interest of those areas, because scrapping schemes would restrict different sorts of amenities and, of course, local jobs.”

The number of convenience stores operated by leading supermarket chains has increased fourfold since 1996, with Sainsbury’s leading the way and promising to open at least two a week this year.