The Somerfield store at Saltoun Square will cease trading as Somerfield on Wednesday, March 3 and reopen with its 22 staff on Saturday, March 6 after a hectic few days of refurbishment and rebranding as a Haldanes store.

It will be the 12th of an initial 15 stores to be taken over in Scotland.

Company chairman Arthur Harris is head of the new company building a new nationwide supermarket network. His hope is to see Haldanes grow to around 50 across the length and breadth of the UK in the next four years.

Mr Harris has set up Haldanes Stores Limited, which will have its headquarters in Broxburn, just outside Edinburgh, and in Grantham, Lincolnshire.

It will be a new supermarket chain that aims to put the 'local' back into shopping, Mr Harris explained.

Haldanes has already opened ten stores in Scotland, and three in England in a rapid expansion programme for a company that is projected to have an annual turnover of more than £100 million and a staff of more than 1,000.



The new independent enterprise was formed after the Co-operative Group agreed with the Office of Fair Trading to offload 133 outlets, in centres where it already had stores, following its acquisition of Somerfield in 2009.

Mr Harris told the Herald: "We are in preliminary discussions with other supermarket operators around the country for possible acquisitions."

Haldanes, whose trading logo is 'Refreshingly local', is the first mid-sized supermarket chain to open for business in the UK for 27 years, filling a gap left with the acquisition of the Scottish firm William Low by Tesco in the mid-90s.

Mr Harris added: "This deal is great news for Fraserburgh because it guarantees the future of the store and will give people in the community a refreshing new shopping experience. Customer reaction at the seven other shops we have up and running has been one of surprise at our pricing policy because the perception of a new brand is that prices go up.

"Haldanes is living proof that this does not have to be the case. We are also currently negotiating for a large number of other stores throughout the UK. We are in preliminary discussions with other supermarket operators throughout Britain as potential acquisitions."

At the heart of the new company's ethos is a strategy to engage fully with local community life at each of the stores, most of which are in market towns.

"We appreciate the role that shops like ours can play in local communities and it's our intention to give something back in return. For example, we would be keen to support local events and, quite simply, to be an integral part of the community. In some ways, we wish to get back to the days when the local store was at the hub of community life," he said.

Although Haldanes will be the new kid on the block, the management team comprises figures of long-established experience in both the retail grocery trade and the main geographic areas where their new stores are located.

"The local knowledge at our disposal is particularly important because it means that we able to tailor the product according to local tastes," said Mr Harris.

"What makes Haldanes different is that we have the local knowledge and the people on the ground to allow us to by-pass middlemen companies and to deal directly with the local suppliers which will increase their margins and must be good news all round," he added.