Motorway travellers will soon be able to pick up sandwiches and ready meals from Waitrose when the supermarket chain opens its first shops at service stations.

The grocery arm of the employee-owned John Lewis Partnership has signed a deal with Welcome Break, the UK’s second-largest motorway services operator, to open two shops in its service areas next month.

The shops, which will be about a sixth of the size of a typical Waitrose store, will open at Oxford services on the M40 and at South Mimms on the M25.

Financial Times, The Times