David Jones food halls to be transformed
David Jones is overhauling its food halls and has brought in Rockpool chef Neil Perry to transform the 178-year-old department store's food business.
It’s been a long time coming.
The first David Jones food hall was opened in Market Street Sydney in 1938, offering customers free tastings of brands such as Heinz and Arnotts.
The retailer now operates four food halls around Australia and customers are likely to see changes in the next few weeks at Market Street and in Bourke Street Melbourne.
"At Market Street we're going to do pop-up things where we'll whet the appetite and get people excited," Perry told the Sydney Morning Herald. "The changes will be gradual."
"We want to give people a compelling reason to come back again and again for the classics and for things changing, things of the moment, so we don't get stuck in time.”
Perry has scoured the world's best food halls including several in New York to come up with new ideas.
Recently, he has been dropping hints about what’s on offer by posting photos of exotic mussels, cheeses and vinegars on his Instagram page. The page has captions referring to a "new project".
The overhaul is the brainchild of David Jones' newly installed chief executive John Dixon.
A former chief of the £5 billion ($9.7 billion) food business of the famous Marks & Spencer chain which has a market leading wine and food department. Dixon is hoping to replicate that here.
"Our food strategy goes beyond the food halls. Short life, long life, wines, groceries, we're looking at revamping the whole of the food operation," Dixon told the Sydney Morning Herald.
"It's perfectly positioned at the top end of the market, in terms of being the destination place for high-quality, speciality food offerings," he added.
"The food hall will undergo a significant transformation. Neil brings an innate understanding of all things food in the Australian market and an unquestionable instinct for pleasing the Australian palate.”
by Leon Gettler, July 21st 2016
