Written by
22/08/2023
Inner West Council has given the greenlight to Woolworths’ redevelopment of Newtown’s former Caltex Station into a Metro retail store at 26 – 36 Enmore Road.
The recently approved DA will see a new 2-storey building comprising a Woolworths Metro retail store across 845sqm of gross floor area, including 300sqm of trading area). The store will also provide a pick-up service on the ground floor and back of house storage operations on the first floor, as well as 11 at-grade car spaces.
Woolworths continues to adapt and evolve its delivery model to suit the changing needs of customers. As part of this shift, in late 2019, Woolworths acquired 10 x former Caltex service stations nationwide. The objective being to develop a new customer offering via a Metro ‘mini supermarket’ in store experience with a locally based online ‘direct-to-boot’ pick-up service.
The subject site was previously used as a Caltex Service Station, which was decommissioned in 2020. Demolition and remediation works commenced onsite in September 2021 by Ampol prior to handover to Fabcot.
Previous Caltex service station retail building and canopy
Located 210 metres from Newtown Station, the site benefits from 3 x access points, including along Enmore Road and Bailey Street.
Enmore Road is a popular retail strip that extends around 750 metres southwest from Newtown’s King Street through to Stanmore Road. An analysis of the local and social economic trends indicates there is significant market opportunity for a Metro store.
Metro stores are designed to meet the most basic everyday needs of customers in a compact and accessible store format suited to quick purchases. Given the smaller store format, the Metro product range is specifically curated to the needs of local residents and the community. For example, the new Newtown Metro will likely include 4000 – 6000 stock keeping units, whereas a full-line supermarket will typically include over 20,000 stock keeping units. The average basket size at Metro stores includes up to 15 items.
Metro offers the convenience of a small-format supermarket close to home or on key transit routes (i.e. to and from work). Locations suitable for Metro stores include inner-city locations and suburban metropolitan areas with an active main street or village precinct. 40% of business is derived from the residential population within 500 metres of the Metro store, with close to 60% of business sourced within 1km.
Metro Stores typically achieves sales of around $10,000 – $15,000 per sqm each year. The proposed Newtown store of 845sqm (including 300sqm of trading area) is estimated to achieve sales of about $8m – $12m.
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