Practising what SLR has long preached, Woodlands Local’s continuous reinvestment plan is set to carry on with the addition of all new shelving and flooring.
by Antony Begley
Since taking over at Woodlands Local a couple of years ago, we have always been extremely conscious of the fact that running our own store meant that that we would have no choice but to practice what we had long preached in SLR on a whole array of fronts.
It’s one thing acting as publishers and journalists to encourage retailers to constantly strive for best practice and another thing entirely to actually do it ourselves as retailers. One area where this challenge becomes particularly difficult is in the practice of continual reinvestment.
In the pages of SLR we have long been committed to the notion that retailers need to continually invest in their stores to keep pace with the rapid evolution of the convenience retailing market and the changing demands and expectations of convenience customers. It’s something that all trade magazines in this sector espouse. But SLR is unique in the UK in being the only trade title with experience of being on the other side of that fence too. It’s far less straightforward to adhere to a programme of continuous investment when it’s your own money you’re continually investing, as we’re rapidly learning.
Breaking the cycle
Most in-store improvements cost significant amounts of money. We all know that. And there are always so many (valid) reasons why that might not be easy right now. We may even see it as impossible; perhaps the store isn’t making enough money at the moment to justify spending on improvements.
But the very tough reality is that it’s this approach that has gotten so many retailers into difficult times in the past. Routinely postponing or cancelling investment means the store is slowly but surely slipping behind trends in both in-store development and technology. With so much competition out there every retailer simply has to invest to compete.
Breaking that cycle can be painful, but it’s something that we’ve had to confront in the store time and again. And it’s set to happen all over again now as we look to replace all of the tired old shelving and lay a new floor throughout the shop to complete phase one of what has been to all intents and purposes a full refit of the shop.
Our spend in the store since we took over is now probably north of £70,000 including all new refrigeration, all new energy efficient lighting and electrics, the addition of a new three-phase electrical supply, a full refit of the counter and hot food areas and a new EPoS system. It feels in some ways that laying the new floor is the final piece in the stage one jigsaw, the end of the beginning of our lives as retailers.
There is absolutely no doubt that this has been a painful process, in financial terms, but we are confident that the spend has given us a fantastic platform upon which to build an exceptional store that will provide exceptional service to our customers for many years to come.
Final pieces
The addition of new shelving and flooring effectively means that everything in the shop – from the customer’s point of view – is under two years old. Their tired local store has been transformed into a modern, bright, clean and attractive convenience outlet.
Don’t get me wrong: there’s still lots to be done, and there’s lots that we would do if we had more money available – but the reality is that we don’t. So we’re cutting our cloth, but we’re literally reinvesting every penny we can afford to.
The new shelving and flooring are vital to our plans however. It will give us the opportunity to introduce a huge new range in the store and present it in the best possible fashion. We’re excited about finally having a store we can genuinely proud of. But that doesn’t mean we’re not nervous about doing it.
At the end of the day, though, if we don’t take the tough decisions like these that we’ve long encouraged our readers to take themselves then there’s not much point in us owning a store.
