Where grocery & convenience is growing in the UK
28,420 grocery & convenience branded outlets across 34 brands are tracked in the UK in the November 2026 release. Birmingham has the most, with 378, or 3.2 per 10,000 residents; the top 25 local areas together hold 5,700 (20% of outlets with a mapped local area). The largest like-for-like net gain since the previous release is in Bury (+6).
Which local areas have the most grocery & convenience outlets?
| # | Local area | Outlets | Brands present | Per 10,000 residents |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Birmingham | 378 | 27: Premier, Costcutter, Tesco Express, One Stop, Londis | 3.2 |
| 2 | Leeds | 336 | 27: Premier, Tesco Express, Sainsbury's, Co-op, Londis | 4.0 |
| 3 | Cornwall | 329 | 21: Spar, Premier, Co-op, Londis, Costcutter | 5.6 |
| 4 | Glasgow City | 316 | 25: U-Save, Premier, Tesco Express, Sainsbury's, Londis | - |
| 5 | County Durham | 297 | 24: Premier, Spar, Co-op, Sainsbury's, Morrisons Daily | 5.5 |
| 6 | ONS area E06000066 | 251 | 25: Premier, Co-op, One Stop, Londis, Lidl | 4.3 |
| 7 | Wiltshire | 248 | 21: Londis, Premier, Costcutter, Co-op, Tesco Express | 4.7 |
| 8 | ONS area E06000065 | 246 | 27: Co-op, Spar, Premier, Costcutter, Londis | 3.9 |
| 9 | Fife | 232 | 24: Premier, Co-op, Spar, Morrisons Daily, Nisa | - |
| 10 | City of Edinburgh | 222 | 23: Scotmid, Premier, Sainsbury's, Tesco Express, Lidl | - |
| 11 | Sheffield | 222 | 27: Premier, Co-op, Tesco Express, Sainsbury's, Spar | 3.8 |
| 12 | Manchester | 216 | 24: Premier, Tesco Express, Co-op, Sainsbury's, Londis | 3.7 |
| 13 | Bristol, City of | 200 | 24: Premier, Tesco Express, Co-op, Costcutter, Sainsbury's | 4.0 |
| 14 | North Lanarkshire | 200 | 23: Premier, U-Save, Spar, Londis, Scotmid | - |
| 15 | Buckinghamshire | 199 | 23: Tesco Express, Londis, Premier, Sainsbury's, Co-op | 3.4 |
| 16 | Dorset | 193 | 21: Spar, Premier, Co-op, Londis, Lidl | 4.9 |
| 17 | Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole | 190 | 24: Premier, Tesco Express, Co-op, Londis, Lidl | 4.6 |
| 18 | Cardiff | 189 | 24: Premier, Tesco Express, Co-op, Spar, One Stop | 4.9 |
| 19 | South Lanarkshire | 185 | 22: Premier, U-Save, Spar, Scotmid, Co-op | - |
| 20 | Liverpool | 180 | 24: Tesco Express, Premier, Iceland Foods, Spar, Aldi | 3.5 |
| 21 | Northumberland | 179 | 25: Premier, Co-op, Londis, Spar, Aldi | 5.4 |
| 22 | North Northamptonshire | 177 | 26: Premier, Central Co-op, Tesco Express, Londis, One Stop | 4.7 |
| 23 | Bradford | 174 | 24: Premier, Co-op, Tesco Express, Londis, Aldi | 3.1 |
| 24 | Sunderland | 171 | 22: Premier, Family Shopper, Heron Foods, Best-one, One Stop | 5.9 |
| 25 | Highland | 170 | 20: Co-op, Spar, Premier, Costcutter, Scotmid | - |
Local areas are local authority districts. Brands present shows how many brands have an outlet there and the five with the most.
Which local areas added the most grocery & convenience outlets?
| # | Local area | Net change | Previous release | This release | All outlets now |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bury | +6 | 76 | 82 | 82 |
| 2 | Wirral | +5 | 131 | 136 | 136 |
| 3 | County Durham | +4 | 293 | 297 | 297 |
| 4 | Sunderland | +4 | 167 | 171 | 171 |
| 5 | Bromley | +4 | 124 | 128 | 128 |
| 6 | Croydon | +4 | 106 | 110 | 110 |
| 7 | Leicester | +4 | 105 | 109 | 109 |
| 8 | Rochdale | +4 | 80 | 84 | 84 |
| 9 | Liverpool | +3 | 177 | 180 | 180 |
| 10 | Northumberland | +3 | 176 | 179 | 179 |
| 11 | West Northamptonshire | +3 | 166 | 169 | 169 |
| 12 | Kirklees | +3 | 160 | 163 | 163 |
| 13 | Barnsley | +3 | 130 | 133 | 133 |
| 14 | Wolverhampton | +3 | 110 | 113 | 113 |
| 15 | West Lothian | +3 | 108 | 111 | 111 |
Net change in outlets for brands present in both releases, for local areas with at least 5 outlets in the sector. No brand in this sector is new to this release.
How these figures are made
Counts are h3hex's own store-by-store record of each brand's published UK locations for the brands listed in the Grocery & convenience sector of the h3hex data store, November 2026 release (scrape window 30 Oct - 3 Nov 2026), page built 2026-11-06. Closed, pre-opening and head-office records are left out. 148 outlets with no mappable postcode are counted in the totals but not in the local-area tables. 4 districts created in 2023 are shown by their ONS code because the postcode lookup used here carries no name for them. Net change compares this release with the 29 October 2026 edition of the same dataset and reflects openings and closures as well as improved coverage of each brand's own locator. Resident population is Census 2021 usual-resident population by output area, summed to local authority district through the ONS postcode-to-output-area lookup (May 2024). The population table does not join to the lookup for districts in Northern Ireland and Scotland, so outlets per 10,000 residents is shown as - for them.
Use the data
Prospect site reports assess a single address against these brands, and the data store sells the grocery & convenience store lists brand by brand or as a sector bundle.