David Jones Announces First Melbourne Location for Food Hall

As part of a three-year food sector shake-up strategy involving $100 million across the country, David Jones has revealed this month that they plan on opening their first Victorian retail food hall in Melbourne’s Malvern Central shopping centre.

Following the successful launch this month of their food store at Sydney’s Bondi Junction, David Jones' Malvern pursuit will reportedly measure 550 square metres and offer fruits and vegetables, salads, sushi, rotisserie chickens, sandwiches, and Espresso Bar coffee, which are under a new David Jones food label which was created to disrupt the market by delivering top quality products.

David Jones Food Group Executive Pieter de Wet told The Australian that David Jones was confident that their food proposition would resonate strongly in Malvern.

“We are excited to introduce to Malvern a premium food retail offer focused on convenience, provenance, freshness and taste that will complement our existing fashion, beauty and homewares offering.

“Malvern Central is the ideal location for this offering, with an accessible centre that lends itself to convenience food shopping and a local customer whom we know are well-travelled food lovers with high expectations for food quality and freshness." de Wet said.

David Jones revealed they hope to bring their Malvern food hall to life in March 2018, and after its completion it was predicted to provide up to 50 new roles for the store, including baristas, cheese, deli, wine and liquor experts.

David Jones CEO and Managing Director Paul Zahra together with Brand Ambassador Megan Gale officially opened the David Jones Malvern Central 12 September 2013 as the first "village format" store in Victoria. Located ten kilometres south-east of the Melbourne CBD, the store covered an area of 7,500 square metres and features a single level store layout housing over 350 Australian and international brands.

The David Jones Malvern Central store incorporates all of the features of the Company’s “Next Generation Store” concept including new features such as digital charging stations, complimentary customer Wi-Fi, an interactive tweet mirror, customer dwelling areas along with dedicated in-store areas to purchase merchandise online and to collect online purchases.