8 minute read
HOW’S YOUR WEEK BEEN...
RETAILER PROFILE
SCOTT GRAHAM
MCLEISH’S, INVERURIE
AS ONE OF THE MOST PROGRESSIVE RETAILERS IN THE BUSINESS, ABERDEENSHIRERETAILER SCOTT GRAHAM DOESN’T LIKE LITTLE THINGS LIKE A GLOBAL PANDEMIC GET IN THEWAY OF A LONG OVERDUE MAJOR REFIT.
HOW’S YOUR WEEK BEEN SCOTT?
[Laughs out loud]. Eh, a wee bit hectic. We finished a full-scale refit at the tail end of last week and re-opened in time for the weekend, so it’s been mental.
YOU PICKED A FINE TIME FOR A REFIT THEN…
Timing doesn’t appear to be my strong suit! When I first got this store about 11 years ago it was 2009 and the global banking system had just collapsed. And now I decided to do a major refit during the worst pandemic in living memory. Apparently I like a challenge.
HAD YOU BEEN PLANNING THE REFIT SINCE BEFORE CORONAVIRUS?
Well, it’s complicated because the 10-year lease I had on the shop ran out last year and I took a while to decide whether I wanted to renew it. Because of that, we had stopped properly investing in the store for the last 18 months or so, but we finally got a deal sorted to renew the lease and we knew that we had some catching up to do. We decided to stick with the McLeish’s name, rather than go with a fascia, and we renewed our deal with JW Filshill as they were the most proactive in supporting us. With a new 10- year lease in place and a new supplier deal agreed we decided it was the right time to look at a full refit to incorporate a lot of the ideas and concepts I’d been picking up over the last few years during visits to other stores.
WHAT WAS THE ETHOS BEHIND THE REFIT?
It actually started over a year ago when I did an interview with SLR for a cover story on ‘30 being the new 20’. The idea was that, with costs rising left, right and centre, retailers now had to be looking to make 30% margins and not the 20% that was industry standard at the time. I’d been thinking about that for months and months and I’d basically been collecting ideas that would let me grow margins in the store while also improving my offer to my customers.
AND WHY NOW?
We had originally planned to do the refit over the Easter weekend but lockdown killed that plan stone dead. We decided now was a great time to do it because we were able to access a non-repayable coronavirus business grant and we’re also getting a year rates-free, so that combined lets us basically pay for the bulk of the refit.
HOW LONG DID IT TAKE?
We spent a long time planning then finally swung into action a week ago on Sunday. We closed the store on the Sunday and reopened last Thursday. The retailer in me was desperate to keep it open if possible, just to keep the money coming in, but we just couldn’t do it. The whole shop frontage was replaced and we needed to close the store for that, so we decided to just bite the bullet and do it right.
DID YOU USE LOCAL TRADESPEOPLE?
Yes, we’ve always been committed to supporting the local community as much as we can, so we used local joiners and electricians and so on. The new frontage was done by a local company too. We did have to use Vertex for some specialist bits and pieces but a lot of it was done by local businesses and tradespeople.
SO, WHAT DID YOU CHANGE DURING THE REFIT?
The whole frontage was redone, as I say. The old signage looked ok, but it was tired and bit worn. We added much bigger entrance doors and a new entrance area. The whole idea was to make the store ‘pop’ when you passed it. One of the things that so many people have said to me is that the store already looked great, so why refit it? But for me, on a high street setting like this, the store has to really pop and stand out and I think we’ve achieved that. I’m really pleased with how it’s turned out. I think it looks fantastic.
AND INSIDE?
Again, we were trying to make a store that really popped, and I was also keen to make sure that it was unique and didn’t look like any other store. We’ve used a lot of old red brick and timber and I think it works really well. There were times during the fit-out last week when I thought to myself that it wasn’t coming together the way I had envisaged it, but once the signage guys came in and wrapped everything and put all the signage up it just pulled it all together and ended up just how I wanted it. I was as just as relieved as I was pleased!
HOW DID YOU IMPLEMENT YOUR ‘30 IS THE NEW 20’ STRATEGY IN- STORE?
We did a lot of work analysing margins from every category in the store and that informed a lot of what we chose to do. Lower margin lines and categories were either de-prioritised or removed altogether to make room for better margin lines, but obviously lines that we still believed could deliver volumes. We added a lot of new higher margin products like F’Real and Skwishee, we’ve expanded the food-to-go section from 4m to 6m, we’ve upgraded our coffee machine and we’ve added a lot of new dessert options like waffles and scooping ice cream and so on. We’ve also added a frozen range for the first time ever.
HOW DID YOU FIT ALL THE NEW LINES IN?
As part of the refit we decided after a lot of, shall I say, lively debate to change the shelving in the store from 500mm base to 300mm and that’s freed up a lot of space and let us add a fifth gondola. I was nervous about that too but it has really worked well and we get comments every day about how the store looks bigger, even though it’s actually the same four walls. We also moved the till point which helps make the store feel more spacious.
HAVE YOU PRIORITISED ANY OTHER CATEGORIES WITH THE NEW SPACE?
We’ve added a lot more fresh and bakery, a lot of it from local producers. We’ve grown our soft drinks space from 2.5m to 4m, because we were always a bit cramped in that category, and we’ve grown our wine range significantly. We’re just reflecting the trends we’re seeing in sales and, obviously, focusing on higher margin lines.
GROCERY?
Yes, that’s a bit of a weird one. We’ve spent years backing out of packaged grocery then coronavirus came along. When lockdown first kicked in I initially convinced myself that we should shut. No school kids, no workies, no office staff, not passing trade. Thankfully, I couldn’t have been more wrong. But what did change dramatically was what people were buying. Impulse lines fell off a cliff but grocery suddenly went through the roof. I sold three tonnes of flour in six weeks at one point! I don’t think I’ve sold more than about half a dozen bags a flour a week in the 10 years before!
SO YOU’VE GIVEN IT SOME SPACE IN THE REFIT?
We’ve allocated some space to it, yes, because people are still buying it. I don’t know what will happen in the longer term but the way we’ve done it we can easily start reducing the grocery space and switching it to something else as required, but for the time being my customers want it.
HOW HAVE SALES BEEN SINCE THE STORE OPENED AGAIN AT THE WEEKEND?
Banging! We were probably about 40% above ‘normal’ sales levels during coronavirus but this weekend we were absolutely flying. I don’t know whether it’s just customers coming by for a look at the new store but on Sunday we were up 100% on a pre-Covid Sunday.
ARE THE NEW LINES CATCHING ON YET?
Absolutely. The scooping ice cream was just crazy. We went with a company called Stew and Drew from Lossiemouth, again just to keep it local and to have a product that no one else in Inverurie was selling and they were brilliant. I had never done ice cream before, so I had no idea what to do but they guided me through the process and at the weekend it was a massive hit. It takes a little more time and effort to serve and I’ve been adding another member of staff to dedicate to it but it more than pays its way. Skwishee is also doing really well. It was slow on Friday for some reason but picked up in fine style on Saturday and Sunday. The rest of the store has been well shopped too, so it’s definitely so far so good. We have a few little things on the snagging list to do and I’m probably being a bit pernickity, but after all that effort I want it to be perfect! I reckon we’ll have it nailed by Friday.
HAS CORONAVIRUS BROUGHT THE INVERURIE COMMUNITY CLOSURE TOGETHER?
You know what, I think it has. It’s been a tough few months for everyone but I see lots of evidence that the local community appreciates the fact that we’ve been there for them all the way through. It feels more like a true community store now than at any point in the last decade. That’s something we’re focusing on in everything we do know, even with simple little things. We always refer to it now as ‘Your New Store’ and I think the bond between the store and the community has been strengthened through the experiences of the last few months.
SOUNDS LIKE YOU’RE ENJOYING RETAIL LIFE?
I really am, I’ve got the buzz back again. The last couple of years were tough what with difficult trading conditions and the negotiations with the lease, but it feels like it did back when I first got the store in 2009. It’s exciting and I’m enjoying it. It’s great to see all my ideas and plans brought to life in the store and it’s fulfilling to be able to provide a really valuable service to the local community – and to see that they appreciate it.
