Tesco to open ‘shop office’ spaces for home workers

‘The problem with coffee shops is noise, interruption. You can’t lay your stuff out in a Starbucks’

TESCO is to convert unused shop space into mini offices as the supermarket seeks to cash in on demand from home workers.

The grocer is to install 12 desks and a meeting room at a Tesco Extra in the London suburb of New Malden next week after signing a pilot deal with IWG, an office provider founded by the property tycoon Mark Dixon.

Mr Dixon hopes to turn a host of Tescos into hubs for remote workers, saying its sites are often perfectly positioned “right in the middle of the chimney pots”.

He said: “You might have the plumber in, making a noise in your flat, so you go down the road to work.

“The problem with coffee shops is noise, interruption. You can’t lay your stuff out in a Starbucks.”

IWG’S new offices at the Tesco Extra in New Malden will be located on the store’s upper mezzanine level, rather than on the shop floor.

Mr Dixon said his company is in talks with other retailers and supermarkets about the idea.

Tesco, Britain’s biggest supermarket, this year unveiled plans to shut 317 meat, fish and hot deli counters to cut back on unprofitable space.

It also pulled the plug on its budget food chain Jack’s, turning six of its 13 no-frills stores into outlets and closing the rest.

Louise Goodland, the head of strategic partnerships at Tesco, stressed the company is “always looking to serve our customers and communities better”.

It comes amid a government push to get civil servants back to the office.