Malvern Central David Jones food store goes directly to the source

Mushrooms are a good example of how David Jones is aiming to shake things up at its new Malvern Central food store.

Instead of buying its mushrooms from market, DJs is dealing directly with growers to bring 14 different types of mushrooms – usually only sent to restaurants – to the new Wattletree Road store.

It is a scheme that will filter through much of the store, with buyers dealing directly with growers to either supply straight to the shelves or package the produce under a David Jones food brand.

DJs managing director food Pieter de Wet says he is aiming to change Australian perceptions that "own label" products are inferior to branded products. More than half of the of the food stocked at the store will be under the DJs brand that it launched last year.

It is a reversal of the retailer's strategy that saw it move away from investing in its food offering for about 10 years, de Wet says.

"But we identified a big gap at the top end of food retailing and customers still have a huge affinity for the DJs brand in food," he says.

So, they have partnered with local Victorian suppliers such as Saint David Dairy in Fitzroy; award-winning cheesemakers That's Amore in Thomastown, bakers from Zeally Bay Sourdough in Torquay and La Madre in Geelong, along with Tasmanian Cape Grim for grass-fed beef, and free-range pork from Queensland's Darling Downs.

The store opened last Friday, attached to the department store on the lower level of Malvern Central, and until Easter will stock sustainable cocoa chocolate and cranberry hot cross buns.