Less than a year after it announced its strategic acquisition of Homebase stores for conversion into new supermarkets, Sainsbury’s has successfully opened the first one in Lowestoft, East Suffolk.
The retailer’s multimillion-pound investment in Lowestoft puts it on the doorstep of customers in the town for the first time, bringing almost 64,000 more people within a ten-minute drive of a Sainsbury’s supermarket. It has also become Sainsbury’s new most easterly store in the whole of the UK1.
Located on Tower Road in the south of Lowestoft, the site has been completely transformed in recent months after East Suffolk Council granted planning permission for the 22,000 sq ft supermarket earlier this year. While it has evolved from a Homebase building, Sainsbury’s has worked hard to ensure customers can be sure they will experience a best-in-class store that will live up to the retailer’s ambition to be customers’ First choice for food.
The new store’s launch follows other supermarkets Sainsbury’s opened in the East of England in May after converting sites acquired from the Co-op in Felixstowe and Brightlingsea, both of which are already proving popular with customers.
Sainsbury’s largest investment in new space for more than a decade
A key ambition of Sainsbury’s Next Level strategy is to offer more food choice to more customers in more locations, building on the strength of its winning combination of quality, value and service. Sainsbury’s is in the process of making its most significant investment in new store space in more than a decade, with 40 new stores planned to open in its current financial year, a mix of acquisitions like Sainsbury’s Lowestoft and others in its existing pipeline.
Over the next two years, Sainsbury’s ambitious total pipeline of new supermarkets will add over 400,000 sq ft of new space to its estate while bringing more than 700,000 more people within a ten-minute drive of a Sainsbury’s store. The plans are also expected to result in the recruitment of around 2,000 new Sainsbury’s colleagues in total.
Sainsbury’s Lowestoft is the 24th new store the retailer has opened so far in 2025, demonstrating the strong momentum that it has already injected into expanding its store footprint this year. Its next supermarket is planned to open in Yatton, North Somerset at the end of this month.
Patrick Dunne, Sainsbury’s Chief Property and Procurement Officer & Managing Director of Smart Charge, said: “This is a very exciting moment for us as we mark the first of many brilliant new supermarkets that we plan to open at converted Homebase sites over the next two years. Our bold plan is driven by our belief in the strength of Sainsbury’s offer and our commitment to bringing more of our delicious, high-quality and great value food within easy reach of more customers.
“We’ve worked diligently to transform this site into a new Sainsbury’s store in just a few months, showing what our fantastic teams can do when we all come together with the support of local Councils and communities. We’re really proud of what we’ve achieved for our customers in Lowestoft and we look forward to delivering the rest of our acquisition pipeline, with the next Homebase conversion planned to launch in Cromer next month.”
The new store team is made up of 70 colleagues, most of whom are new to Sainsbury’s, and it includes some colleagues who worked at the previous Homebase store. The team is already off to a strong start in the local community after colleagues from the store recently joined Suffolk Beach Cleans to help clean up rubbish from nearby Pakefield Beach.
At the start of this year, Sainsbury’s announced two increases in pay for hourly paid colleagues that would take place throughout 2025 and in March, all colleagues outside of London across both Sainsbury’s and Argos moved from £12 to £12.45 per hour. A further increase to £12.60 per hour will follow next month.
ENDS
Notes to editors
The new store’s address is Sainsbury’s Lowestoft Superstore, Tower Road, Lowestoft, Suffolk NR33 7NG
Sainsbury’s is committed to promoting safer neighbourhoods. An example of this is its ‘Think 25’ Policy, whereby colleagues are trained to check the age of anyone buying alcohol if they appear to be aged 25 or under.
The new store will also deliver substantial benefits for the local community through Sainsbury’s charity, community and volunteering initiatives. For example, the store will take part in the retailer’s Nourish the Nation campaign, a programme in partnership with Comic Relief aimed at helping to tackle food poverty by ensuring communities have improved access to balanced, nutritional and sustainable food sources.