New home for popular Waterlooville greengrocer after moving into London Road premises away from ‘dilapidated’ Wellington Way

After 20 years in Wellington Way, Waterlooville Fruiterers - now Waterlooville Fruit And Veg - has set up shop on London Road.

Owner Andy Price says that the shop has had ‘a positive experience so far’ in its new premises, and that it has already seen an increase of around 20 per cent in business.

Andy said: ‘We’ve been very pleased with how it’s gone. We’ve seen an increase in passing trade, and we’re keen to put it out there that we’ve moved.

‘We are aware of the fact that customers are coming in who thought we closed down.

‘We’re really pleased where we are today but we’re hoping there’s a bit more scope for people to find us and have a look around our produce.’

As previously reported by The News, the greengrocers suffered significant footfall loss, seeing about 50 per cent less customers in comparison to business before Covid.

This was put down to the ‘dilapidated’ state of Wellington Way, where only around 20 per cent of premises are occupied and the remaining buildings being empty shop fronts.

Andy said: ‘Because Wellington Way is so dilapidated, it’s not attracted people who are new to the area to go and have a wander around.

‘We feel the shop now is so much better than what we had before. We’re able to display the products better and hope that adds to the quality of the products.

‘Moving to this main London Road location was always going to increase our rents and rates, but we’re really grateful for the support from the local community.’

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Waterlooville Fruit And Veg is now at 121/123 London Road, between Halifax and Cafe Havana and opposite the HSBC car park.

Andy added: ‘We’d like to thank everybody for all the support and good wishes we’ve had, and also to invite them to come into the shop.

‘Hopefully they’ll find it a pleasant shopping experience and find some lovely local fresh produce - we’ve got lots of nice local products that people will enjoy.’