Talk of the town

Townhill stores may have a large shop floor but it’s got an even bigger heart.

Store CV:

Name: Townhill Stores, Swansea Retailer: Tony and Mandy Kaur Size: 3,000sq ft Openinghours: 7am-10pm Services: Post Office, Lotto, cash machine, defibrillator Staff: 13 Keycategories: Alcohol, Chilled, Refresh

COMMUNITY STARS: Baldev Singh and Mandy Kaur are the beating heart of the local community. Baldev Singh and Mandy Kaur have certainly seen a lot of change since they first started trading at Townhill Stores back in 2002. However, despite the flux of recent years their commitment to the needs of local shoppers has remained constant – in fact, if anything, it has strengthened.

The store joined Premier in 2014 and boasts a prime location, perched on a major roundabout connecting four arterial roads. It’s also just a stone’s throw away from the local school and other community amenities, including the local park, skate park and community centre. The sea of residential housing that surrounds the store lends it a very mixed shopper demographic, with plenty of young families, middle-aged shoppers and many elderly residents.

Until very recently, the store also benefited from a sizeable student demographic, owing to its proximity to student housing on Swansea Metropolitan University’s Townhill campus. However, at the start of 2022, much of the old accommodation was torn down to make way for new family housing. Set for

completion in 2023, the new build will create 84 new homes, a development which is sure to help push the store’s already considerable average daily footfall of 900 a day yet further.

While the store’s prime location undoubtably helps to draw shoppers in, it’s the vast and unique range and packed schedule of community support that makes Premier Townhill truly magnetising to local people.

At 3,000sq ft, Premier Townhill has the space to offer local people a full shopping experience. “We’re fortunate to not have a great deal of local competition which means many shoppers come to us for big weekly shops as well as regular top-up missions,” Baldev says.

Helping shoppers to achieve their shopping goals is a vast eight metre bay of chilled food ideally positioned at the front of the store. The new Jack’s range is the undeniable star of the show here with the Booker-exclusive own-brand shining brightly from behind the doors of Baldev’s energy-efficient chillers.

“Shoppers can’t get enough of Jack’s,” he says. “We’ve got it across most key categories in chilled now including fresh meat and fruit and vegetables, ready meals and more. The ready meals are selling very strongly. At just £3.39 for meals like Spaghetti Bolognaise, Lasagne or Chicken Korma, the price is a big draw. The on-pack ‘Part of the Tesco family’ messaging is another major sales driver. Shoppers really like that.”

Baldev says the quality is also very good and he gets lots of very positive feedback about the fresh meat and vegetables. “We are selling more fresh products, especially vegetables, now that they have the Jack’s branding,” he says. “That’s good news for our profits but it’s also good news in terms of wastage. Food waste was already low here, but it has dropped even further as a result.”

The store has almost six metres of chilled soft drinks, including 2L take-home bottles and a further 7.5 metres of chilled beers, white wine and rosé, while red wine enjoys two metres of dedicated space. A four metre backlit display behind the till showcases the store’s on-trend spirits offer.

The large shop floor means allows the store to create ‘wow-factor’ displays,

especially in the off-licence zone where Baldev and his team carefully stack large multi-packs of beers, ciders and RTDs to drive take-home sales.

The store’s sense of space is further heightened by low-level shelving across the centre of the shop floor and low-level chest freezers which allow the eye to take in

The store welcomes an average of 900 shoppers a day

the wider off er. Further-in-store theatre can also be found in the grocery aisles, where local bread and cakes complement its strong range of branded baked goods.

“Our local bread loaves and rolls come from the Garth Bakery and we display them in wooden fi xtures which add an attractive rustic feel,” Baldev says. “We also sell premium cakes from a small supplier called Ruby’s – the cakes are priced at £5 and up but shoppers still buy them because they are lovely.”

For shoppers after a great value for money proposition, Premier Townhill also stocks a wide range of Euroshopperbranded goods, including eggs, which at £1 for a box of six are bestsellers. “Price and price-marking is also key in our confectionery zone and we so shift a lot of bagged confectionery price marked at 2 for £1.50,” Baldev adds. The store devotes a 1.5-metre bay to American confectionery, off ering brands like Nerds, Swedish Fish and Hershey’s.

Also catering to the needs of Baldev’s younger shoppers is a striking Refresh zone introduced at the end of 2020 as part of a mini refurbishment. “The Refresh zone has been a huge hit,” he explains. “The shoppers, especially our younger shoppers adore the concept. It includes Tango Ice Blast, F’real and Hershey’s Freeze, plus a barista-style coff ee-to-go machine. Tango Ice Blast is the key draw though and we sell well over a hundred cups of that alone each week during term time, rising even higher during the school holidays.”

Given the store’s average footfall of 900 shoppers a day, it operates a twolane queuing system at all times, to guarantee speedy service. “Service is a key consideration,” continues Baldev. “Having been here since 2002 we have built up strong and positive relationships with many of our shoppers and we really do go out of our way to help them where we can, especially the elderly.”

That support was particularly clear to see during the pandemic, when Baldev and the Townhill team assisted their loyal local shoppers in a variety of ways, including establishing a new home-delivery service. “The home delivery side of things took off during the pandemic and I appointed two dedicated members of staff to help me manage it as well as possible,” Baldev says.

“Local people really valued the service, especially our elderly and more vulnerable shoppers of whom we have many.” What started out as an initiative to help more vulnerable shoppers has since blossomed into a new scheme off ering ultra-fast and

Shoppers buy more than 100 cups of Tango Ice Blast a week

convenient home delivery for all. In July this year, Baldev and Mandy launched a secondary home delivery service via the app-based Kwik-e-Shopper platform.

Offering home delivery to local houses in under one hour and for a minimum order of just £10 the new Kwik-e-Shopper service is already hugely popular. “It’s still early days but shoppers seem very pleased with it,” Baldev adds.

Shoppers are also passionate about the store’s strong community ethos, which sees it support an array of local good causes. “We support all manner of local initiatives with donations to raffles and such like but we also do big charitable drives each year,” Baldev explains. “One local good cause in particular that we always supported heavily is our local Air Ambulance. We put on fundraising drives throughout the year and last year we raised just under £4,000.”

As such a key location in the Townhill area, Baldev and Mandy’s store also hosts the community’s defibrillator which they recently agreed to mount on its exterior wall. Further goodwill was spread in June of this year when Baldev and Mandy organised a community celebration for The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee at the store.

Shoppers were invited in to enjoy a fun-packed afternoon with face painting and balloon modelling along with free refreshments and a raffle. “The day was a great success and brought people together in such a positive way which was wonderful to see after the recent challenging years,” he adds. “We’re in a strong place at the moment, both as a store and as a community and I’m optimistic about the road ahead.”