A great coffee offer is now one of the most important aspects of a convenience store and the days of every shop feeling and looking the same are gone, says Spar UK managing director Michael Fletcher.
Speaking to Better Wholesaling at the company’s regional wholesaler Appleby Westward’s annual conference, he explained that the breakfast meal deal is becoming just as important as its lunch counterpart, with food -to-go a huge opportunity for independent retailers to differentiate themselves from the multiples.
Fletcher also added the inevitable evolution of food-to-go means Spar’s supplier base will naturally continue to grow in addition to its traditional FMCG network: “For example, we now work with the likes of the Samworth Brothers who offer a fresh sandwich van delivery fleet, meaning they can deliver to every shop, every day and offer a way of bringing freshness back into the supply chain,” he said. “Most c-stores wouldn’t have the volume to justify a fresh delivery from a warehouse every day, but the combination of long-life wholesale delivery and short life fresh van deliveries fits very well together.”
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Spar UK trading director Ian Taylor echoed his thoughts: “It’s all about lunch time meal deal and a breakfast offer. Stores need to be offering deals like this every day to capture what we call the ‘white van man or woman sale’ which can be up to £15. These customer types will buy a range of products such as an energy drink, a newspaper and vapes, but retailers need to have hot items like bacon rolls and coffee on sale to get them in the store in the first place.”
Elsewhere at the conference, Appleby Westward, who are set to be sold by their parent company, revealed how last year it took a different approach to NPD by presenting a range of new products to The Wessex Guild of Spar – a group within the network that represents retailers in the south west.
Following this, the wholesaler and Guild created a scoring matrix that used the results to launch the highest-ranking NPD into the market and split them into gold, silver, and bronze, with gold being a full-scale launch.
The wholesaler also revealed that it is currently at an ‘industry leading’ 98-99% fulfilment and 97% when you factor in inbound.
