Supermarket giant Sainsbury’s eyes up Dumfries Homebase site

Supermarket giant Sainsbury’s has lodged a bid to allow it to open a new store in the south of Scotland.

The company wants to take over a unit previously occupied by Homebase on the Cuckoo Bridge Retail Park in Dumfries.

However, conditions in place in the area – designed to protect the town centre – currently limit sales to only non-food bulky goods.

Sainsbury’s has submitted an application to modify that restriction in order to allow it to convert the site into a supermarket which it said would create 100 new jobs.

Homebase went into administration last year and the Dumfries site subsequently closed with the loss of about 25 jobs.

However, Sainsbury’s – which does not currently have a store in the town – could step in to give it a new use.

It said that if given the go-ahead it could “enhance convenience for shoppers, foster healthy competition, increase consumer choice, and contribute positively to the local economy”.

At the end of August 2024, Sainsbury’s announced expansion plans to open several new supermarkets at a variety of locations across Scotland, England and Northern Ireland in old Homebase stores.

These sites already benefit from planning permission to operate as retail stores but Dumfries has the planning condition limiting the goods which can be sold.

Sainsbury’s wants to adjust that condition to let it sell “food and other convenience goods”.

It said its investment would generate up to 100 new, full and part-time jobs and could be open later this year.

The company has also carried out an assessment of the impact of the move on Dumfries town centre.

It concluded it would not have “significant adverse effect on the vitality and viability” of the area.