Bramcote Lane Convenience's Success Story

Journey to Increased Turnover

Convenience has always been competitive, especially with the growth of the supermarkets and discounters. Despite these challenges, the sector continues to grow. Many believe that this is due to the determination of convenience retailers and the ability of their businesses to be much nimbler than their larger counterparts. Bramcote Lane Premier is a fantastic example of how flexibility and smart decisions can lead to improved business turnover and footfall.

Previous Success and a Proactive Approach

Previously, Bramcote Lane made its money like many convenience stores with a focus on news, alcohol and tobacco with a shop layout that complimented these established categories.

Using the reports from ShopMate, his EPoS system, Kulwarn discovered that while his sales were strong, his profits were starting to diminish. That, combined with the turbulence currently experienced in Tobacco encouraged him to make a change in January 2016.

A Shift in Focus

Kulwarn decided to focus on meal solutions. To do this, he's moved his news fixture and alcohol to the back of the store and installed new chillers and freezers close to the entrance. He's introduced new fresh, chilled and frozen lines and installed a microwave to boost his food-to-go offering.

According to Kulwarn, this change is firmly influenced by finances. Food sales at Bramcote consistently make better margins than tobacco and news, around 35%. He's also working to reduce waste by selling all of his unsold fresh and chilled stock to a local customer at a discounted price.

The Result

The idea was ambitious and six months on from the refit the question remains, did it work? Bramcote's EPoS data shows some impressive improvements. Turnover alone has increased by 4% as a result of shoppers spending more on each visit, around 12% which is in line with the figures published by Convenience Store and Him! for retailers that embrace fresh food and meal solutions.

From a category perspective, Bramcote's sales and basket boosts come from substantial increases in chilled (19%), frozen (80%) and grocery (25%). As expected, the categories which have been moved, News and Alcohol saw a small decline in sales (on average 2%), but the improvements in other categories offset this.

These figures are a great result for Bramcote Premier, and we'd like to congratulate its owner, Kulwarn Singh Dhariwal for taking a leap of faith and proving the value of fresh food and meal solutions.