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Londis store profile: John
The Londis Bia Blas deli concept is bright and attractive
As the location for Londis’ exciting new adverts, Glennon’s Londis Cabra in Dublin will be broadcast across television, video on demand and accompanied by a digital and social media campaign
On location John Glennon of Glennon’s Londis Cabra tells Julia O’Reilly about revamps, ad campaigns, and what makes a store a success
Back in 1990, brothers John and Eddie Glennon from Mullingar founded the Glennon Group. Today, the pair run a number of successful stores nationwide. A keen eye might even recognise one of those stores, Londis Cabra, from Londis’ latest ad campaign.
Glennon’s retail journey goes all the way back to 1981, when he got his start in Tesco after finishing school. From there, he spent seven years working in multiples including H Williams and Quinnsworth before joining forces with his brother Eddie.
Catering to customers
Ahead of the Cabra store’s revamp, the Glennons worked with Londis to shape their store to better cater to its existing customer profile. “One of our main challenges was changing the format of the shop,” he says. “There are a lot of elderly and retired people in the area, as well as schools and working people.”
As well as updating the store, Glennon says the main goal of the revamp was to reorganise the store’s layout to highlight what it already had on offer: “We changed the layout to better suit the shoppers we get in every day. Our grocery department has been reduced to allow for an enhanced fresh food offering, and there’s now a much greater off-licence selection too.
Stellar staff
Glennon adds that the staff at Londis Cabra –eight full-timers and four part-timers – were stellar throughout the revamp. “They were excellent. I’d say 90% of the time, the Cabra team were in charge of everything. The shop fitters and planners would come in and out, but it was really the team driving us through the revamp and keeping the show on the road. And believe me, they were looking forward to it too.”
Stronger than ever
Glennon is delighted with both the results of the revamp, and the progress the store has made since. Despite the challenges of the last 18 months, he says Londis Cabra is now stronger than ever.
Glennon thinks the store’s boost in sales can in part be credited to elderly cocooners shopping local. “Some elderly people didn’t want to get on the bus to go into town to go shopping,” he says, “they were using their local shops more. I think we benefitted there.”
Ad campaign
Another bit of good news for the store came all the way from Londis HQ, which chose
A range of tasty and nutritious hot meals are also available in-store, perfect for time-pressed shoppers looking for a quick and easy dinner The store has been “redesigned to suit the more convenience-driven shopper that’s headed to school or work and wants to pick up a coffee, a pastry or a sandwich,” says retailer John Glennon
Londis Cabra as the location for its latest TV advertisement.
The locals seemed to get a kick out of it too: “The locals saw the filming going on and a lot of them came in to investigate what was happening. They might not recognise the store when they see it on their screens, but it brought a bit of excitement.”
Secret to success
With many retail success stories to his name, Glennon is a good person to ask what it takes to make a store a hit? “Location is key,” he advises. “It’s so important that you start with a good location as the foundation. Once that’s covered, it’s about customer service in all its forms.”
Glennon takes a holistic approach to customer service: “People often think customer service is how the customer is treated at the till, or how long they’re waiting in line. But it’s so much more than that. It’s coming into a clean store, having the products someone is looking for, being open at a certain time of day. The list is endless.”
Industry change
Work 40 years in any industry and you’ll observe plenty of change. Retail is no exception. Through the years, Glennon has watched the rise of on-the-go food and the demise of ‘dry grocery’; the onslaught of instant communication and social media; as well as the more recent rise of online shopping and grocery delivery.
Some things seem so integral to retail that it’s hard to imagine a time without them. While picking up a hot coffee from a local retailer may seem as humdrum as buying a stick of gum today, it wasn’t long ago that the retail coffee business was non-existent. Glennon recalls having one of Ireland’s first press button coffee machines in one of his stores around 20 years ago – “It was a great novelty at the time.”
Then came the arrival of the discount retailers, which Glennon says changed the way retail in Ireland worked: “When I started out, there were no discounters in the country. Most retailers closed on a Sunday and traded late two nights a week. Otherwise, most closed at 6pm and on Bank Holidays too. That’s changed now. Both the availability of shopping and the variety people have now is dramatically different.”
Still, Glennon takes a considered approach to the current state of the industry: “Retailers have always faced challenges and always will. Yes, it’s a tough industry, but it always has been.”
Londis support
A tough industry indeed, which is why the Glennons are all the more grateful to the team at Londis for the support they’ve received throughout the last two years. “I’d like to thank the team at Londis for all the help they’ve given us you to date, especially during the revamp and indeed throughout the pandemic,” Glennon says. “In terms of Covid19, they made everything as straightforward as possible. They did the research and presented us with a weekly checklist. Everybody was singing off the same sheet. It allowed us and our team to know we were doing everything we should to stay safe.” ■
