SUTTON PLACE TO ENTER NEW YORK METRO AREA

LISA A. TIBBITTS

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- Sutton Place Gourmet here will enter the metro New York area next spring.

The opening is part of a more ambitious expansion strategy for the specialty retailer, which is "planning to double [it's] size within the next three to five years," according to Katherine Newell Smith, vice president of communications.

The 13-store company will open a 21,000-square-foot unit in the Long Island town of Woodbury, N.Y. The Woodbury unit will be one of the company's two largest stores. Although Smith would not specify how many stores are planned for the New York area, she explained that the region is a logical choice for expansion because its upscale demographics match those of Sutton Place's target customers.

The company will easily be able to supply New York-area stores with prepared foods, Smith said, because it operates a central kitchen facility in Norwalk, Conn., the site of one of the company's Hay Day stores. Sutton Place merged with Hay Day Market, based in Westport, Conn., last February.

Sutton Place plans to open three other stores next year: one in Reston, Va., one in McClain, Va. and a Sutton on the Run store in Washington. The company premiered its Sutton on the Run format, a mini-unit geared toward prepared foods, earlier this year.