Sainsbury’s has unveiled its new flagship supermarket following a major project to extend and renovate its existing store in Tonbridge, Kent, into a larger, state-of-the-art superstore for customers. It started work onsite at Sainsbury’s Tonbridge in July 2025 and this week Tom Tugendhat MP joined colleagues, customers and members of the local community to cut the ribbon at the new store.
The completion of this exciting multimillion-pound investment in Tonbridge marks another milestone in the retailer’s plans to bring the bring the best of Sainsbury’s to more people across the UK with its biggest investment in stores in a decade.
The newly transformed store, which showcases some of Sainsbury’s very latest supermarket format design and features, is approximately 25,000sq ft larger than before – an extension of over 70% to the shopfloor. This has enabled Sainsbury’s to add around 17,000 new products to the store’s range in total.
Sainsbury’s is passionate about making good food joyful, accessible and affordable for everyone – and it is with this vision in mind that the new store has been designed. The store now has 30% more space dedicated to high quality, great value food, allowing it to offer hundreds of delicious new products to customers. For example, the produce section stocking fresh fruit and veg is two and a half times larger than before and there is also a new Sushi Gourmet counter in the refreshed Food on the Go hub.
As well as new ranges in food, customers can also try out the store’s brand-new home and clothing department for the first time, which features a carefully curated range of fashionable Tu Clothing and stylish Habitat products. Sainsbury’s Tonbridge also offers a new beauty department, supported by specially trained beauty experts and the Argos store inside the supermarket has also been upgraded, including the addition of an improved kiosk for placing orders.
Sainsbury’s investment in the supermarkets has created new jobs and it has initially recruited 30 new colleagues to join the existing team to ensure it continues to provide brilliant service throughout the expanded store.
David Pilbeam, Sainsbury’s director of property acquisitions, capital projects and engineering, said: “Our new Sainsbury’s Tonbridge is the latest example of how we’re delivering on our ambition to bring more of Sainsbury’s to more customers in more locations, while improving ranges and customer experience in many of our existing stores. We’re delighted to have completed this project to transform the supermarket into a completely refreshed, flagship store for our customers after many years of planning, design and construction.
“We know that renovating the store has involved a significant amount of disruption in and around it and I’d like to thank everyone in the community for their support and patience while this has taken place. We hope our customers will agree that it has been worth the wait and we look forward to hearing their feedback now that the new store is open.”
Samantha Epps, Sainsbury’s Tonbridge store manager, said: “I’m thrilled that I’ve had the opportunity to lead the fantastic team at Sainsbury’s Tonbridge throughout its transformation. We’ve been working hard for the last nine months to support the expansion of the supermarket while also keeping as much continuity as possible for our customers.
“Sainsbury’s has served the Tonbridge community for more than 100 years and we’re excited to play an even bigger role in the town for many more years to come from our exciting new store.”
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