BREAKING NEWS: Waitrose confirms move away from Littlehampton

Sea cadets playing during the opening of Waitrose Littlehampton, in August 2011.

The supermarket, in Anchor Springs, will announced it will shut up shop at some point this summer.

It comes after the company reached an agreement to lease the vacant former Co-op unit at the junction of Broadmark Lane and The Street in Rustington.

Waitrose head of retail operations, Simon Rudland, confirmed that there would be no redundancies or job losses on the cards as a result of the shake-up.

He said: “While we look forward to opening in Rustington, we are proud to have been part of the Littlehampton community for the last four years and will be sad to leave the town.

“It was not an easy decision to relocate and we understand it may cause some disappointment with our Littlehampton customers.

“Like any business though we must always evaluate how we can improve our customer’s shopping experience and best serve the area in the long-term.”

The new branch will double the number of customer car parking spaces available and provide a dedicated service area for deliveries.

A spokesman added that the Littlehampton shop will continue to trade until the new Rustington branch opens later this year at a date which is yet to be confirmed.

All the 140 employees at Waitrose Littlehampton will be offered the opportunity to move to the new store, they were told yesterday. The spokesman added that, at this stage, it was not certain whether the move would create new jobs in Rustington.

However, he said that it ‘could be a possibility’.

Waitrose Littlehampton opened in 2011.

Before that, the store was a Somerfield supermarket outlet.