Delhaize's first store selling exclusively organic foods has proved so successful that the Belgian chain is setting up a franchise scheme for the format. Trading development director Xavier Ury told The Grocer he expects the Biosquare franchise will attract at least three to five independent retailers a year trading in high traffic locations in more affluent areas of large towns and cities. The tiny 1,000 sq ft trial store in Brussels started trading in March and already turns over 800,000 Belgian francs a week (£12,500), said Ury. The next store will open at an undisclosed location before the end of the year. The Biosquare format stocks about 2,000 lines: 1,600 food SKUs including fresh fruit and veg and babyfood and 400 non food SKUs. Delhaize already accounts for well over a third of the organic food sales in Belgium through its supermarket sales and Biosquare is a natural progression of that, said Ury. "The sky is really the limit with this concept in terms of numbers ­ we'll just have to see how the market develops." Biosquare is just one of a series of concepts and formats being trialled in Belgium, said chief executive Pierre-Olivier Beckers at this year's Schroder Salomon Smith Barney conference in London. Although the vast majority of Delhaize's sales are generated in the US, the domestic market is "far from dead," he added. "Our market share is growing all the time." He dismissed reports that Delhaize is heading for a price war with Carrefour on home territory as the French giant refurbishes and rebrands the GB chain in Belgium. "We haven't, nor do we expect to move significantly on price. Our initiatives are not price orientated, and we've got no plans to kill our gross margins. Where we do compete directly with Carrefour, we haven't suffered." Following its acquisition of the remaining share capital in Delhaize America, Delhaize is not looking at making another acquisition in the next 18 months. {{NEWS }}