Customers of Waitrose can expect champagne fridges, dry-aged beef cabinets and new hot food partnerships under a multimillion-pound plan to upgrade stores.

The supermarket chain also announced plans to add an extra 100 convenience stores over the next five years in a £1 billion investment.

It said a quarter of its existing 320 stores would be revamped so that they offered chilled beer and wine cabinets, dedicated charcuterie stations and hot chicken and salad sections.

The chain, which is owned by the John Lewis Partnership, also plans to launch new partnerships with high street food retailers.

The first revamped store, in Finchley Road, north London, opened on Wednesday offering a branded Crosstown Doughnuts pop up and a Hot Wok for customers to take home hot and freshly made Asian cuisine.

The refurbished stores will also have “on demand” grocery hatches that are open longer than the stores themselves so that Uber and Deliveroo drivers can pick up orders for local customers.

Waitrose said the re-working of stores was part of a new plan to focus on its “food-loving customers and what’s important to them”. It added that its new service counters would offer customers “that extra personal touch”.

The partnership said it planned to open 100 new convenience shops and up to four large supermarkets over the next five years, creating about 3,200 jobs.

The first new Little Waitrose store in six years will open in Hampton Hill, southwest London, later this year. A second is expected to open in Greater London early next year. At present only about 45 of its retail premises are convenience stores.

The retailer said that it would also continue to invest in technology to ensure there were no longer gaps on shelves after IT problems and a warehouse fire led to stock issues in 2022 and last year.

Waitrose has begun to win back market share after a difficult period in which it came under pressure from rivals, including a resurgent Marks & Spencer, and shoppers looking for cheaper options amid the cost of living crisis.

The supermarket chain recorded its strongest growth since November 2023 in the three months to August 4, according to market share data from Kantar.

Jason Tarry, the former Tesco boss, will join as chairman of the John Lewis Partnership next month, taking on one of the biggest and most high-pressure jobs in British retail.

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He will replace Dame Sharon White, the outgoing chairwoman, and joins at a difficult time. The group has been battling mounting debts and tumbling profits and has struggled to compete against its nimbler, online rivals.

White, who joined in 2020, having never worked in retail before, has recently steered the company back into the black but has been criticised for focusing on non-retail areas such as housing and financial services.

Tarry is expected to oversee a return to prioritising retail after the partnership vowed in March to focus “unashamedly” on investing in its core retail business.

Nish Kankiwala, chief executive of John Lewis, said the partnership’s “retail-driven plan” was beginning to gain traction and its “growing number of shoppers and increasing customer satisfaction scores are clear indicators of its success”.

He added: “This is a result of our unrelenting focus on improving the customer experience of our retail businesses, taking the love that exists for both brands and making sure customers are rewarded with better shops, the highest quality products, and the best service.”