Health food shop Holland & Barrett is opening its first Free From concept store in Chester as part of plans to open 50 over the next two years.
The launch of Holland & Barrett More marks Holland & Barrett’s intention to become the UK’s largest retailer of Free From products.
The store in Chester’s city centre, which opens today, will stock 3,000 Free From products, which will also be available online in response to growing numbers of people suffering with food allergies and intolerances.
The range of goods will cover all of the main Free From categories defined in legislation, from gluten and dairy free through to nut, egg and fish allergies.
Peter Aldis, chief executive of Holland & Barrett’s parent company NBTY said: “The speed of growth of Free From has seen it transform from what was once regarded as a nutritional niche into a mainstream shopping option. You Gov data on where people buy Free From products shows we already do well in this market, scoring significantly ahead of Boots and very close to Waitrose and Morrisons. We already have more high street stores than many of the big supermarkets, and the 50 new concept stores we have planned for the next two years will help ensure we can deliver against our ambition to become the largest Free From retailer in the UK.”
More than a fifth of people in the UK now identify themselves as having an allergy or intolerance and 15% of households avoid gluten or wheat – with more than half of those doing so as a healthy choice according to recent research by Mintel called the Free From Foods Report.
The UK Free From food category has doubled in value since 2009 to reach £365m in 2014 and the market is forecast to grow by a further 51% between 2014 and 2019 to reach £551m. Dairy/ lactose-free and gluten/ wheat-free are the two areas that show the most impressive growth, with the former up by 15.3% and the latter by 15.0% in 2014.
