PREMIER BROADWAY CONVENIENCE STORE, EDINBURGH

STORE PROFILE: DENNIS & LINDA WILLIAMS

HOW’S YOUR WEEK BEEN... DENNIS & LINDA WILLIAMS?

FROM FACING DISASTER JUST A FEW YEARS AGO WHEN ALDI MOVED IN NEXT DOOR, EDINBURGH RETAILERS DENNIS AND LINDA WILLIAMS HAVE REINVENTED THEIR BUSINESS AND ARE CURRENTLY ENJOYING RECORD NUMBERS IN THE STORE THEY’VE OWNED FOR ALMOST FOUR DECADES.

HOW’S YOUR WEEK BEEN DENNIS & LINDA?

We’ve had worse weeks! We’re seeing record basket spends, huge year-on-year growth, the deli is flying and Linda recently won an SLR Reward, so things aren’t too bad at all.

AN AMAZING TURNAROUND IN JUST A FEW YEARS?

Yes, when we learned that Aldi was moving in almost literally next door, we really did fear the worst. At the time it was a proper disaster scenario and we really didn’t see how we could find a way forward. But with the help of Premier and, in particular Charles Wilson, we developed a game plan and we stuck to it and here we are a few years later with the store doing record numbers. It’s astonishing really.

WHAT WAS THE GENERAL PLAN WHEN ALDI ARRIVED?

Charles Wilson offered us some amazing advice and he spent lots of time helping us develop a strategy. That strategy was basically around developing our offering to ensure we were providing a range of products and services that Aldi doesn’t. It was a simple but very effective strategy.

AND THAT WAS THE START OF THE FOOD-TO-GO JOURNEY?

We saw food-to-go as a key way of setting ourselves apart. We had very modest targets at the outset. We were aiming to add £200 a week to our sales with the deli. To put that in context, in the run up to this Christmas the deli was doing over £3,000 a week – so you could say we’re pleased with the results!

AND YOU DID A MAJOR REFIT LAST YEAR?

Yes, in September we carried out a full refit of the store.

WHAT DROVE THAT DECISION?

Lots of things but principally the fact that a lot of the store was getting a little tired. We also wanted to add some new products and services, and we wanted to allocate the sales space more efficiently, prioritising lines that deliver both sales and profits. Again, Charles Wilson was involved in that process and really helped us focus our thinking. Like many retailers, we had been a little guilty of just focusing on lines that sell well, without properly analysing how much profit they delivered. We did six different versions of the plan for the remodelled store and every time we sent it them to Charles, he wasn’t happy with them. He had his team analyse all our Epos data in depth and finally came up with a plan that focused firmly on profit – and that was the plan we ended up going with.

SO WHAT CHANGED DURING THE REFIT?

Everything, really! The biggest surprise we got from the data analysis was how important soft drinks was to us. For the sales and profit it was delivering, Charles reckoned we needed about three times more space for the category. So we did just that, tripling the space and moving the entire category to the back of the shop. So now we have three distinct sections: carbonates; milk, juices

and waters; and multipacks and 2l bottles. A big part of the refit was all geared towards helping us leverage the growth of the deli by trying to grow incremental purchases from deli customers. Now our deli customers have to walk through the store to get a drink, and virtually every deli customer buys a drink. So they pass the crisps and the confectionery and so on and, more often than not, they’ll add a little impulse purchase or two.

DID YOU UPDATE THE FIXTURES AND FITTING TOO?

Yes, the chilled cabinets were all replaced with modern, more efficient units and the entire shop floor was reworked with new fixtures. We added a coffee island too and we have a F’real machine arriving any day, so that should help grow sales and footfall further. We also increased space for growing categories and reduced space for categories that either sell slowly or don’t deliver enough margin. All very logical and sensible, but it’s only when you step back and take a fresh look at the whole store that you realise there’s a lot you can do to grow profits.

DID IT WORK?

The short answer is yes, absolutely. However, the problem is that it’s hard to pin down the exact reasons why sales and profits are so high because there’s so much going on. So many factors are influencing sales and profits at the moment. All told, sales are up 18% year-on-year, which isn’t bad for a store that’s been here for decades. Footfall has been down throughout the pandemic, but basket spend is at a record high. It has grown by over 48% recently and is up over 40% year-onyear. It currently sits at almost £11 (and over £9 without services), which is unbelievable. So the big challenge is to just get a few more customers through the door.

We were aiming to add £200 a week to our sales with the deli – but in the run up to this Christmas it was doing over £3,000 a week!

HOW ARE YOU DOING THAT?

Facebook has been enormous for us in the last year. Linda and our daughter Sophie, who has been working for us over the last year, have done an amazing job and we’re seeing huge engagement levels now. We have over 2,500 followers and that’s growing all the time. It’s a fantastic way of staying in touch with our customers and we get some lovely feedback.

HOW WAS CHRISTMAS?

Exceptional. Sales over the Christmas fortnight were up 17% year-on-year, but that’s more or less on a par with the year-on-year growth we’ve seen every fortnight so, again, it’s hard to analyse the data and come to firm conclusions – but as long as the sales and profits keep coming, we’re happy!

WHY IS THE DELI PERFORMING SO WELL?

We always set out to offer quality. If we wouldn’t eat it ourselves, we wouldn’t sell it to our customers. We use great quality ingredients and we keep the menu fresh, with a daily lunch special and a soup of the day. We’re getting customers coming from miles away. It’s hard, hard work and £3,000 a week is a lot of food, but it shows we had the right idea. The next step will be to recruit more staff to help us grow it even further.

AND LINDA WON AN SLR REWARD?

Yes, we were thrilled that she won a Covid Hero Award for her Covid Hardship Fund. It was a really simple but really effective idea and we’ve now handed out over £12,000 to local people who just need a little help. We’ll keep the Fund open permanently, even when Covid is gone because in our community there will always be people who could do with a wee helping hand, but we’re not pushing it hard these days as people have already been so generous. Having said that, we still get donations every week.

WHAT LIES AHEAD?

That depends on the pandemic. I think we’ll see a lot more people working from home permanently which should mean they’ll shop locally more often. I think there’s a new appreciation of the important of local retailers these days too, which is long overdue. We think it will be a long time before things get back to normal, and even then, it’s not likely to be the same as the old normal. Hopefully that will be a positive for local retailers everywhere.