Budgens retailer Andrew Thornton is to sell his Crouch End store.

The retailer has agreed to sell the North London store back to Budgens, who will then pass it on to an independent retailer

Andrew has decided to focus his energies on his Belsize Park Budgens, which he hopes to turn into the most energy-efficient store in the world. He has negotiated with Budgens so that no redundancies will be made at Crouch End.

During his seven years as owner of the store, Andrew introduced a number of community initiatives including the Food from the Sky scheme which made it the first supermarket to have its own farm on the roof, and Pennies for Plastic which enabled him to donate over £125,000 to local projects.

Andrew was also a strong advocate of local suppliers and stocked over 40 ‘Made in London’ food producers in the Crouch End store and was also one of the first retailers to introduce chiller doors despite warnings that it may result in a loss of sales.

Andrew praised his staff and customers for making the store a success despite strong competition. “In addition to our Budgens, we have a Tesco next door, a Waitrose four doors down and an M&S nearby,” he said. “In spite of this, thanks to the support of each and every one of our customers and the hard work of our team, the store remains profitable, enabling us to reinvest thousands of pounds back into the community.”

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