The Battersea General Store blazed a trail as the first retailer to open at the re-imagined Battersea Power Station back in 2017, with fresh fruit and vegetables supplied by New Covent Garden Market at the heart of its premium offer. With a sister store – The Chelsea Grocer – now open on King’s Road, the close working relationship with the Market continues

Opening a 6,500 sq ft grocery shop in the heart of a decommissioned power station site wasn’t for the faint hearted, but for owner Raj Bathia, the concept of The Battersea General Store was a ‘crown jewel’ he couldn’t turn down. With 3,400 new homes about to be built in the vicinity, he saw the potential for opening a grocery store able to tap into the wonderful assortment of fresh fruit, vegetables, and flowers located on its doorstep at New Covent Garden Market (NCGM).

Raj grew up in Clapham Common, a couple of miles from NCGM, with fresh fruit and vegetables always ‘a big thing’ for his family growing up.

“My father-in-law used to always visit NCGM,” says Raj. “He was one of the early traders there and we were working with MG & Sons at that time. We were receiving deliveries from New Covent Garden daily, so I was always aware of the Market’s existence, but I never had a need to go there myself until I opened my first store.

"Because that’s when I wanted quality.”

Raj opened his first coffee shops and delis in 2001, eventually making the move into grocery in 2008 with his first location in Chelsea Bridge Wharf. “It was a Berkeley Homes development offering a mix of retail and apartments,” says Raj, “and the concept was originally going to be a deli and coffee shop with a large seating area. It was the shop fitters who said I should make at least half of the space into a grocery store. Credit to them, I looked at it and it made sense what they were saying. That’s how the entire journey started.”

He had an idea - his store wasn’t just going to be a regular grocery convenience store with goods that you could get from any of the national wholesalers. Oh no, nothing like that. “I’d travelled the world extensively from a young age and have always been in the food business or associated with the food business in one form or the other,” explains Raj. “I was used to dealing with all sorts of different people and looking at the type of purchasing habits they have and what type of products they’re looking for. My concept was to sell products from every major country and bring all of those best-in-class products under one roof.”

Central to the offer was best-of-the-best fresh produce. For comparison, Raj tried a few wholesalers based at other London wholesale markets, but the quality just wasn’t there he says. “I wanted quality, that’s why we went to New Covent Garden, as we needed a different grade of fruit, the best fruit and veg that you can get. We purchase our produce when it’s in season where possible because then you’ll get maximum flavour. What this market offers us is true seasonality.

"We had a beautiful fruit and veg boat custom-made for our first store, filled daily with the finest produce from the Market. We’d visit early, early doors, pretty much every day. We also had a wholesaler who was delivering to us daily.”

Raj established strong relationships with a host of Market businesses, including P&I Fruits and The French Garden, both of which still supply his stores. “The daily visit to the Market was essential, going to several suppliers depending who had what and cherry picking the best produce. And it really kept us in line with what was in season. Thanks to conversations with our suppliers, we knew the origin of all our fresh produce and spent a lot of time on our displays. I think that is really important, isn’t it? Especially with fruit and veg, as it’s so colourful. The smell, and the look and feel is vital.”

Even though Raj now has multiple locations, including the Battersea General Store and The Chelsea Grocer, he still monitors each display every morning to ensure his fruit and veg is displayed at its best. “The managers of each store send me pictures with fruit and veg every day, and I’ll check them. Every single day. Is everything correct? Is everything filled properly? It’s so important. My office is here in Battersea, so I check our displays here every day first thing, then I visit the other stores as well. Merchandising is so important, and it didn’t take me ages to learn this. Every box has got to be exactly right. You know, someone could have come and squashed a grape or squashed some fruit. Replenishment is really important, isn’t it? Especially with something as perishable as fruit and veg. Quality checking. Continuously. That’s been a big thing for us.”

In addition to the best fresh produce, Raj’s stores offer food and drink from across the world. Korean products, crispbreads from Norway, American foods and candies, plus a comprehensive selection of wines from both the Old and New World. “I went deep into the wine section of our store and put an assortment together which was spectacular,” says Raj. “In Bordeaux, for example, you have the best chateaux, the first cru chateaux, and then some of them produce a second wine and a third wine, which is under their brand, but they put it under a slightly different label so it’s more affordable. Instead of £200, it’s like £50 or £40 or even £35. So it allows people to drink from a great chateau, a great winemaker, but at a much more affordable price. And it’s an entry level? If you like that, then you can step up and try this.”

At the same time, Raj’s locations sell regular groceries. “People always want their tomato ketchup,” he jokes, adding: “You know the phrase ‘bread and butter lines’, right? We were selling bread and butter, Walker’s crisps, Heinz baked beans. Any grocery business fundamentally needs to have the basics people live by every day. And actually, it becomes the basis of your business. Everything else is the cherry on top.

"Over a period of a couple of years we curated an extensive range of amazing products from across the world, as well as lots of local stuff. And at the same time, whilst this was all going on, the centrepiece was our beautiful fruit and veg boat,” he says.

Raj defines the Power Station as an ‘interesting place to be’, a unique viewpoint gained from being the first shop to open in the development back in 2017. After a year, Raj was approached by the Cadogan Group, responsible for many of the retail spaces in Chelsea. “They were developing Pavilion Road, next to Sloane Square and wanted me to join them,” says Raj. “So, we opened a very small unit – a complete contrast to our Battersea store – on a tiny little road that’s been pedestrianised. The road has gone back to the fundamentals of the traditional high street, with us offering general groceries next to an independent butcher, baker, and wine merchant. We don’t offer fruit and veg in that shop because there’s a fruit and veg store there already called Natoora. Each shop has its own speciality, and knows what it has to focus on.”

When the iconic grocery shop Partridge’s decided to relocate from its Chelsea home on King’s Road to nearby Gloucester Road, Raj saw an opportunity to bring his Battersea offer to the heart of SW3. “In the same way we launched in Battersea, we were targeting a top-end clientele in Chelsea. So we have different assortments, products and offers for each of the two shops. For example, The Chelsea Grocer stocks 2,000 varieties of wine, compared to 1,500 at the Battersea General Store. But it’s the same principle - we offer best in class. And at the heart of our offer is fresh fruit and veg. You can sell all the ambient goods you want. All the plastic packaging or whatever it is you want. But fundamentally, what’s going to draw customers and what’s going to satisfy customer needs more than fresh fruit and veg? It’s healthy and we’re giving our customers a very healthy offering. Then if they go on to buy some other products, that’s fine.”

Although Raj’s stores attract a wealthy clientele, his fruit and veg offer is fairly priced, offering good value for money. “I’ve proved that you can sell high-quality fruit and veggies and still make a profit. You need to be in the right place though, with the right clientele.”

He explains that even in the short journey across the river, he’s noticed differences in the demographic shopping for fruit and veg. “In Chelsea, people are willing to spend different levels of money on the top, top, top quality,” he says, “so there’s certain fruit and veg we buy from New Covent Garden that we stock in Chelsea in our new store, that we don’t stock in Battersea, for example.”

One of Raj’s merchandising secrets is for everything to be very organised and very clean. “I like to have a massive assortment and choice in every single product category,” he says, “whether it’s olive oil, whether it’s salt, whether it’s fruit and veg or wine. "It’s 2025 now, eight years since we first opened in Battersea and six months since we opened in Chelsea. And we are still tweaking the assortment every single day. The tweaking never stops. We’re introduced new product categories that we didn’t do before we opened up.

“So, you’re constantly responding. Because it’s not about us? It’s about what the customers want to buy. We’re just there to serve. And it’s important we remember that.”