Exclusive Nicola Gordon-Seymour A new organic store opening in London next month is aiming to shake off the "hippy image" of health food stores. The chain, to be called Greenways, is co-founded by Whistlestop's joint md Karim Lalarni and organics consultant Michael Pettett, who recently advised Freshlands. Greenways will be Whistlestop's sister company and Lalarni will take a back seat role as non-executive director. Also on board are operations manager Dean Jenkins, food buyer Ludovica Del Piano and non-food buyer Inga Damell, all formerly of the Freshlands group. Phillipa Pettett is marketing manager. Stores will initially be restricted to London and there will be three trading formats: c-store, 1,000-2,000 sq ft; local market store, 3,000-6,000 sq ft; and supermarkets of 10,000-20,000 sq ft. Greenways aims to have 10 stores within Whistlestop stores ­ the first of which opened two weeks ago at Victoria Station ­ and up to five standalone sites up and running within a year. The first c-store format will open in mid-March on Oxford Street and will be kitted out with the group's own fascia and logo ­ yet to be finalised. Pettett said: "We have the financial backing and infrastructure a lot of other company's don't. We aim to develop a new generation of supermarket, which has a similar feel to a normal supermarket. We want to shake off the hippy image of health food." Greenways has tapped into Whistlestop's existing relationship with Nisa as well as setting up its own chilled distribution network. "The supply chain in the health food organics industry is 30 years out of date. We have identified this problem and set up our own network to counteract it," Pettett said. Some 150 organic lines have already been developed under Greenways' own organic labels. The range will be extended to 500 lines, including a non-organic range under the Greenways label. The company is also investing heavily in staff and training and has established an institute to train staff and stage public lectures and seminars. {{NEWS }}