Wm Morrison Supermarket Abergavenny

Wm Morrison

Abergavenny, Wales

Bowman Riley designed the new supermarket in Abergavenny for Wm Morrison following their successful bid to develop the cattle market site in the town centre. Monmouthshire County Council identified this preferred site over an out-of-town location that would drive custom from the centre.

Working collaboratively with our client, we created a new concept store designed to standardise the external appearance of future stores and improve the customer shopping experience. Prior to this project, all Wm Morrison store exteriors were unique to suit their location. The new concept was to create a distinctly modern appearance that could be replicated across new stores, thereby improving brand recognition and introducing cost savings through standardisation.

We were challenged to reduce the cost of the building fabric resulting in a large box with glazing to the front. The glazing played a crucial part in achieving our client’s aim to connect the store visually with the outside environment allowing customers to view the inside from outside and vice versa. This was intended to increase the appeal of the store.

An interior market stall aesthetic was created by breaking up the sales floor with individual stalls to house the in-store bakery, delicatessen, fishmonger and so on. We explored the potential to use modular units that could be slotted into the stores but this proved too costly and a traditional build was chosen.

A key driver of the project was to significantly increase the sales floor area by reducing the back of house. This was achieved by moving the cafe from the storefront and by bringing the sales floor to the front of the building resulting in a large open space, this led to an ability to reduce the back of house area.

The new concept is considered to be a success by Wm Morrison and began to be rolled out across their new build stores before Abergavenny was completed.

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