Sava Centre - History - The First Stores Open

The First Stores Open

The first SavaCentre opened at The Galleries, Washington, Tyne and Wear, on 15 November 1977, with 70,000 sq ft (6,500 m2) of sales area, and the slogan "The store with more for less.". This store was extended by a further 10,000 sq ft (930 m2) to 80,000 sq ft (7,400 m2) in 1986. On 17 October 1978, the second SavaCentre opened in the Hempstead Valley Shopping Centre off Junction 4 of the M2 Motorway in Hempstead, Kent. At the opposite end of the Hempstead Valley Shopping Centre a Presto (UK supermarket) opened, which later became a Safeway (UK) store. Following Sainsbury's buyout of Storehouse plc's 50% stake in SavaCentre in 1989, the British Home Stores branch is now located in the former Safeway store, following Safeway's 2004 acquisition by Morrisons.

The number of SavaCentres grew slowly during the 1980s. In March 1980, the third SavaCentre opened in Basildon Town Centre, adjacent to the Eastgate Shopping Centre (Basildon) in Essex with 71,000 sq ft (6,600 m2) of sales area, but this store was sold to Asda in 2004. In October 1980, a fourth SavaCentre opened in the Town Centre of Oldbury, West Midlands, off Junction 2 of the M5 motorway near Birmingham. In September 1980, the Calcot SavaCentre, off Junction 12 of the M4 motorway in Reading, Berkshire, opened, and this store was used in the SavaCentre TV adverts in 1983. The Calcot SavaCentre was further extended by 20,000 sq ft (1,900 m2) in the 1990/91 financial year, but when the store was re-branded as Sainsbury's in 2005, the extension was sold off to Next (clothing).

In 1984, SavaCentre started trading in Scotland following the opening of a store in Cameron Toll Shopping Centre in Cameron Toll, Edinburgh, between the A7 and A701 roads. At the time of building the Cameron Toll SavaCentre was Scotland’s largest single level store. This store also had to compete with a smaller Safeway (UK) supermarket in the same shopping centre, until the Safeway branch closed down in 1997.

Colliers Wood, London Merton SavaCentre opened on 28 February 1989 with 107,430 sq ft (9,981 m2) of sales area, making it the largest hypermarket in the UK at the time of its opening. This store was later split up, with Sainsbury's taking 75,000 sq ft (7,000 m2) of the sales area. The remainder of the space was taken by Marks & Spencer in 2005, with the store exterior featuring branding of both companies.