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Whole Foods eyes up the West End

The moribund former Arnold Clark garage in Vinicombe Street is reckoned set to become the latest Scottish branch of American supermarket firm Whole Foods Market – in a dramatic move which would draw hundreds of new luxury goods shoppers to the West End.

The story was exclusively broken in The Herald, and appears based on solid information, although following usual practice neither Whole Foods nor Arnold Clark are commenting for the time being.

This exactly follows the way Whole Foods prepared the ground for its new branch in Giffnock three years ago, in what was the first venture for the firm outside London.

Months of speculation that it was set to move into a former Morrison’s store in Fenwick Road finally ended when East Renfrewshire’s since-closed local newspaper found details of the opening in a schedule listing on the company’s American website.

The opening – the only Whole Foods branch in Scotland so far – is reckoned to have transformed Giffnock, thanks to the volume of customers now using what was previously a backwater suburban shopping thoroughfare. Local projects have also benefited from “planning gain” cash from Whole Foods – which makes a policy of heavily supporting local community initiatives.

Now, according to The Herald, the firm is gearing up to move into the West End, and in a site just yards from the Waitrose branch on Byres Road that’s said to have exceeded all trading expectations.

Coming just days after the news that fine dining venture Heart Buchanan had closed, and with other trading casualties littered along the length of Byres Road, Whole Foods’ potential move could draw a major new seam of shoppers to the area – while solving the problem of what to do with the eyesore Edwardian era former garage.

This building has been an architectural bone of contention for years, with local community activists claiming it should be preserved as a motoring museum, or even used as an annexe of the Museum of Transport.

However the oil-sodden shell – whose distinctive facade is its only real attraction – is unlikely to find backing for such a scheme.  A previous attempt to put the building to good use, by turning it into a mixed offices and retail complex, was scrapped after significant local objections.

According to The Herald there remain concerns that a Whole Foods branch on this site would bring an unacceptable overload of traffic to an area already swamped with vehicles, but – as with controversial recent housing plans in the West End – that could become a minor detail in the clamour to bring one of the world’s most prestigious stores to Glasgow.

Whole Foods Market is massive in its home country, the USA, where it grew exponentially from a pilot venture founded by a entrepreneur convinced that a supermarket approach to organic products could win success at the wealthy end of the mass market.

Until recently the company’s UK presence was confined to London, where it operates a clutch of stores in well-heeled areas such as Knightsbridge.
Since moving into Giffnock it has signalled it aims to continue careful expansion into selected sites as and when the opportunity arises, but the apparent interest in the West End will still come as a surprise to many local people – given the effects of the recession and the cut-throat trading conditions on Byres Road.

However Whole Foods Market has a unique selling point (“incredible quality from credible sources”) that could virtually guarantee success in an area where quality food is already a main draw.

Its range of products is super-deluxe, featuring many unique lines and an unrivalled assortment of organic products (not every line is organic, but it’s the mainstay of the firm’s food offer).

There are no standard household lines to be found alongside the other fare, as for example in Waitrose, and anyone visiting will be looking purely for the best food money can buy.

Many would argue that with the solitary exception of its existing branch in Giffnock there is no operator able to offer premium quality fare on the same scale as Whole Foods anywhere in Scotland.

The Giffnock branch has a diner where you can sample some of the merchandise during a shopping trip, so if the scheme goes ahead the West End could also acquire yet another new cafe outlet.

However it’s the produce – everything from the firm’s own beer to the finest craft cheeses  – that will draw the cash-happy crowds, not least at Christmas time when spending on deluxe goods (recession or no recession) accelerates.
If the move does go ahead it’s fair to say it will amount to the most significant retail opening in West Glasgow since the launch of Oran Mor, and will make the West End a destination venue for north-side customers (for example from the bungalow belt suburbia around Bearsden) eager to source “Harrods-style” produce within minutes of home.

Demand for luxury shopping in Milngavie has already led to demand for a local branch of Waitrose, currently awaiting council permission.
However for some West Enders the surprise Whole Foods venture in Vinicombe Street would still be “a supermarket”, in an area where – as most recently with Heart Buchanan -some independent traders are finding it hard or impossible to stay afloat.

Waitrose was blamed by some for the demise of nearby, La Cucina, and the former Roots and Fruits – immediately beside Waitrose – also shut up shop.

Meanwhile plans by Tesco for Partick have sparked major public and political opposition, amid fears the area could become a “Tesco Town” in which struggling local shops would find it impossible to compete.

The recession has already led to a rash of closures, and the opening of a large new pawnshop on Dumbarton Road.

On the other hand Waitrose and Whole Foods could argue that they operate at the upper end of the market, and that small local shops could actually benefit from the increased custom they bring.

Whole Foods future?

If the scheme outlined in The Herald does go ahead, it could have major implications for community endeavours in the area.

Whole Foods positively seeks out local projects, which have a strong association with, for example, green endeavour, good food, and community wellbeing.  It has been strongly involved – often with significant cash support – at a variety of schemes in East Renfrewshire, for example providing a major presence and support for the area’s September Food Festival.

There seems no reason why Whole Foods might not team up with some of the area’s leading restaurants – for example Mother India, The Ubiquitous Chip – to create a West End Food Festival.

The firm would be almost certain to lend some sort of corporate backing to the under-pressure Festival, which last year lost key sponsorship, and it could easily become involved with nearby licensed trade players – Booly Mardis and Hillhead Book Club – to run food-specific events in a Vinicombe Street “piazza” environment.

Booly’s management has already been quoted as predicting the arrival of Whole Foods literally next door would bring a lucrative new seam of custom to the area.

Many other possibilities are open to a company, which always – on previous form – sets out to seize the high ground from the outset when it comes to generous support for community projects.

For example it could be help with the fabric of the North Kelvin Community Meadow.   Campaigners there are waiting to find whether the council aims to approve the West End’s latest controversial flats proposal – that is, for the site they redeemed from being a derelict waste ground and  drugs den, and which is now a prime resource for local families.

However many other local schemes – particularly with an educational or environmental focus – could also benefit.

Much more on Whole Foods Market – and the planning hoops it may have to jump through – if and when the apparent plan leaked by the Herald comes closer to fruition.

Red Carpet for McEwan’s

Glasgow West End, along with the city centre, is a regular test bed for new drinks products of every kind – and in the past it has certainly not been unusual to see parties of jolly and brightly-attired young women dishing out free drink samples to customers in late bars and nightclubs.

But that is a very different kind of promotion to the ones carried out by beer firms determined to capture a big, appreciative market for a major new product involving a “household name” ale brand.

Long before the ads go on TV and appear at football grounds, a new beer will be seeded into “key bars” for people to try, possibly just out of curiosity – Glaswegians generally like anything “new”.

This way a beer firm about to invest vast sums of money can try to make sure that average customers will actually want to drink the stuff when it goes on sale across the country.

So that is why Oran Mor has recently been operating not one but three beer fonts for the new 3.6% abv beer McEwan’s Red.  It’s an innovative “new line” for the famous McEwan’s range from its owners Wells and Young’s, the independent Bedford-based brewer, which acquired McEwan’s beers from Heineken.

McEwan’s was once a mainstay of the former Scottish Courage, and some Oran Mor regulars will remember the McEwan’s Sessions sponsored folk music sessions – which usually drew large, appreciative and thirsty crowds.

The beer was disposed of by the company, because it no longer fitted the former owner’s global marketing strategy, but these days – courtesy of Wells and Young’s – the draught version of McEwan’s Red will now be produced at Edinburgh’s Caledonian Brewery, meaning the direct brewing link with Scotland will be maintained.

The Bedford brewer has a solid reputation for cask ale (which, it’s been made clear to me, will certainly feature, if not necessarily in a big way, in future plans for McEwan’s) but also for products including its major keg success Bombardier.   

The firm says it’s determined to breathe new life into what had been the flagging McEwan’s brand by launching a string of innovative new products, of which McEwan’s Red will be just the front-runner.

Wells and Young’s has been quietly forming plans for the past 18 months, since it acquired the brand, and – with the successful example of Belhaven Best to follow – is hoping for great things from the new red-coloured beer.

And where better to test such as product than the West End’s busiest bar?

At a launch for McEwan’s Red in Edinburgh (McEwan’s home town) Wells and Young’s chiefs predicted a born-again bright future for a beer big name they reckon can still exercise appeal, particularly with a new variant calculated to give it a contemporary spin.

We’re told Oran Mor has had its McEwan’s Red beer fonts operating a full stretch, and that the beer has run out at least once; and meanwhile customers at The Lismore in Partick have also been sampling the drink.

So if the ale does become a hit with drinkers across the whole of Scotland and the North of England (and possibly further south eventually), it can fairly be claimed that it was well and truly launched from the heart of Glasgow’s West End.

This section: Eating and drinking Glasgow West End