The introduction of an extensive range of Scottish craft beers has proven a real hit with shoppers at Woodlands Local – so much so that we’ve already expended the range.
by Antony Begley
It’s always quite satisfying when a hunch comes off, so it’s been richly rewarding to see that the range of Scottish craft beers we introduced into the store in March has already established itself in the first few weeks.
Granted, sales are more solid than spectacular, but with 100 bottles sold in the first few weeks at £1.99 a pop, we’re quite pleased with the uptake. Particularly as we had virtually no craft beers to speak of before that point so the zero to 100 has been achieved more or less from a standing start.
Supplied by Filshill’s Beer Clan of Scotland business, most of the beers come from small micro breweries in Scotland and it certainly feels good to be supporting small businesses.
More importantly, however, the beers taste fantastic. I might have sampled one or two myself just to check the quality!
Upmarket strategy
The new range is part of our strategy to attract more shoppers from the more affluent group of houses around the store, customers who rarely come to Woodlands Local. We’re adding in a posh range of wines and spirits as well as a good selection of higher end deli-style chilled foods, as well as a much improved and expanded hot food range.
The success of the craft beers range has encouraged us to buy in the rest of the Beer Clan of Scotland range, taking us to over 40 craft beers. Our aim, quite bluntly, is to become famous for offering the best beers, wines and spirits range in Falkirk.
We’re also aiming to offer a unique range that isn’t found in Asda, Aldi or any of the other stores that pepper the town.
Sample session
To build the momentum gathering behind craft beer in the store, we’re also working with Filshill to organise a sampling session in-store where our customers can come along and try out some of these fantastic, top quality brews.
We may even be able to attract one or two of the brewers themselves to come along and offer ‘tutored tastings’ and explain to our customers the love and care that goes into making these products.
We’re intending to publicise the event on our Facebook page, through bespoke leaflets and through ads in the local newspaper. This will be the first of several events we have planned for the summer months.
Presentation focus
After a lengthy search we finally found a good system for merchandising the contents of our chiller cabinet. The awkward shaped packs are difficult to present well but we found a neat if slightly complicated system from Concept Data Display (www.concept-data.com; 0113 265 0093) which works a treat.
The system works with a magnetic strip which runs along the front of each shelf then a series of dividers. In between the dividers is a sprung system that automatically pushes the product to the front of the shelf, making the chillers much neater and busier looking.
Very pleased with the outcome – although we didn’t order nearly enough of the kit, despite an hour’s work trying to establish precisely how much we would need.