Change for the better

Premier retailers Jas and Navi Singh are winning local hearts, minds and spend in the Welsh village of Cefn Hengoed.

IN THIS TOGETHER: The pair are enjoying life at the centre of the local community.

Jas and Navi Singh are certainly no strangers to change, and no strangers to adversity either. In fact, the pair have encountered sizeable measures of both over the course of the past 15 years. However, thanks to an innate sense of determination, passion and a whole lot of hard work, the pair have come out the other side winning.

Jas explains: “My career didn’t start in retail, I was actually a London bus driver for many years before deciding to switch professions after our first child was born. I was keen to be my own boss and be around the family more during the day. I bought my first ever store, a small unaffiliated CTN in Hoxton, back in 2007. I was running that in the day with Navi’s help but still driving buses at night to make ends meet and provide the best I could for our young family.”

However, as Jas explains, his first outing as a retailer was far from an easy one. “It was a very challenging and exhausting time. Local competition was fierce and despite us having invested in the business, it started to become a struggle,” he says.

So, in 2013 and after having sold the Hoxton store, Jas and his young family made the bold decision to relocate to Wales. “We’d heard though friends and other retailers that the Welsh convenience store market could offer much greater opportunities for growth and profit, so we decided to go for it,” he says.

“Going for it” certainly paid off.

“The first store that we bought in 2013 totally changed the game for us,” Jas explains. “It was a run-down site when we took it over, but once we’d replenished the stock levels, invested in the fixtures and fittings and adopted the Premier fascia, sales started to fly.”

Jas and Navi invested £100,000 in the store development

Store CV:

Name: Premier Cefn Hengoed Retailers: Jas and Navi Singh Size: 1,400 sq ft Staff: 4 Key categories: BWS, chilled, drinks to go

THE WORLD OF FLAVOUR STARTS HERE.

PURSUE FLAVOUR.

RRP¹ 12.90

1. RRP = Recommended Retail Price. All on shelf prices selected by retailer alone

The success of this initial store paved the way for Jas to purchase a number of other properties over the years, including 35 residential flats. Then in early 2020 and on the hunt for another site, Jas and Navi came across a 1,400 sq ft convenience store in the Mid-Glamorgan village of Cefn Hengoed.

“I’d had my eye on the store for a while, but initially the previous owner only wanted to lease it to me” Jas explains. “Fortunately, a few months later he called back, offering to sell us the freehold. We were delighted! Just like the first store that we had taken on, this was quite a run-down site, but we knew that if we rolled up our sleeves, we could turn it around.”

Jas and Navi got the keys to the new site in June 2021. Back then it was turning over just under £13,000 a week. “The main problem with the site was its stock levels, they were so low,” Jas recalls. “Shoppers were crying out for more products. Fortunately, we were able to put £70,000 worth of stock into the store as soon as we took over and within just one week, sales had hit £20,000.

“We were shocked at the impact that higher stock alone had made, and sales continued to climb over the weeks, eventually hitting £25,000 and that was without any big investments in fixtures or fittings. The store’s potential was so clear for us to see, all it needed was a bit of extra TLC.”

Centrally located in the heart of a rural residential housing estate, with little in the way of other competition, Jas and Navi knew that with a carefully orchestrated store development project, sales would be propelled to even loftier heights.

“We’d been inspired by some of the other Premier store development projects that we’d seen in Talking Shop magazine and we couldn’t wait to get stuck into our own,” Jas says.

Valentines Day 2022 saw the pair do just that. On 14 February, the store closed its doors as a £100,000 refurbishment project guaranteed to melt local hearts began.

Weekly sales are now hitting £35,000 a week

Three weeks later, Premier Cefn Hengoed re-opened with a show-stopping new look and offer majoring on fresh, chilled, and drinks to go.

“From floors, to wall, ceilings and fixtures and fittings, you name it, we fixed it,” laughs Jas “Everything is new in the store.”

The fresh-faced store also showcases a variety of extended and totally new ranges. “Our chilled food offer has doubled to 7.5m in line with shopper demand and we’ve also extended our range of frozen products as that’s what local shoppers were asking us for,” Jas says.

Recognising the opportunities offered by the profitable BWS category, alcohol lines were also extended, with best-selling categories such as spirits and beer given more space. “Alcohol is one of our bestperforming categories,” says Jas “and since the refit, we now take around £1,500 on alcohol each day on the weekend. Sales of larger and cider multi-packs in particular are seeing very solid growth, especially over the summer months and we expect that trend to keep on climbing as we head into the autumn months and all their seasonal opportunities.”

However, perhaps the biggest change to the store’s offer has been the introduction of a new Refresh zone.

“Refresh has been a spectacular hit,” Jas says. “Our Refresh offer features a Tango Ice Blast machine which is totally unique in this area. Despite our more rural location and lack of passing trade, we sell more than 30 cups of Tango Ice Blast a day and on hot days it’s beyond 50. Our shoppers are very value conscious, though so we’ve been careful with the pricing, we’ve kept the price at £3 for a small cup and £4 for a large cup.”

The store’s value for money focus is also highlighted by its vast array of special offers and deals.

“Premier offers some of the best deals and low prices in the market and our shoppers know that,” he explains. “Since the refit we are seeing more and more of them coming to us for things like chilled foods and BWS as they know they can get a great deal locally and don’t need to spend time and money driving to the supermarket.”

The store’s hit range of American confectionery has also been extended, in line with demand from its local teen shoppers. A new free-to-use cash machine has been fitted in the store’s exterior wall to help improve access to cash. Flashy fixtures and radiant ranges aside, Jas says that it’s his hard-working team of loyal, local staff of whom he’s most proud.

“Our staff are without doubt, our biggest asset,” he smiles. “They are all local and have a genuine passion for this community and this store. The service they deliver is truly second to none. We get lots of shoppers who visit the store multiple times in one day but our staff always welcome them like it’s their first visit. I also have to give a special mention to Premier. The group’s support has been invaluable to us throughout this process, especially our RDM Gerwyn Williams.”

There’s no doubt that the turnaround has been a spectacular one. “Sales since we re-opened the store have been huge and are now £35,000 a week” Jas says. “Shoppers have been blown away by the change, jaws dropped when we first opened and we are still getting such positive feedback now. Shoppers are overjoyed with the new range and the overall look, they all comment on how clean and fresh and cool it is in here.

“Average basket spend is now just under £12 but it’s not uncommon to get £60 baskets as shoppers buy into new ranges that simply didn’t exist before. It’s been such a transformation and we are beyond proud.”