Ex-Sainsbury’s CEO Justin King has made a “significant investment” in Dundee-based home delivery platform Snappy Shopper and has become a Senior Adviser to the company.
Fast-growing home delivery platform Snappy Shopper has announced that former Sainsbury’s CEO Justin King has made a “significant investment” in the Dundee-based business and will also be serving as a Senior Adviser to the company’s management team.
The business envisages King joining the Board as Non-Executive Director following a Series A fundraising round that has recently been launched.
One of the UK’s foremost food retailers, King ran Sainsbury’s between 2004 and 2014, leading the business through a major turnaround followed by nine years of profit growth. Before joining Sainsbury’s, he was Head of Food at Marks & Spencer and is currently an M&S Non-Executive Director and a member of the Public Interest Body of PwC.
King commented: “I have been hugely impressed by the Snappy Group’s affordable solution, leadership team and rapid growth. The company is championing the needs of businesses in their local community. Its proprietary technology provides local businesses with an affordable delivery solution which enables them to compete in this fast-changing market segment. This not only caters to the trend for top-up shopping but also an increasing desire by consumers to access and support local enterprises.
“This is an exciting and pivotal time for the business, and I believe that I will be able to add significant value. I look forward to working with the management team as the business continues its expansion and grows its market share further within the thriving UK convenience market and beyond.”
King will bring this wealth of retail understanding and business experience to the Board of the Snappy Group, as the Company seeks to grow the services it provides to local retailers and hospitality organisations.
The Snappy Group’s Series A fundraising will enable the company to continue its rapid expansion in convenience and hospitality. The Group has gone from strength to strength, having grown from 220 business partners in 2019 to 1,150 today. More than 700,000 consumers use the platform across the UK and annualised Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) approached £100m for the year ended March 2021.
Mike Callachan, co-founder of Snappy Shopper, said: “We are very excited to have been able to attract Justin’s interest and investment. Justin is one of the UK’s most successful business leaders and brings a wealth of experience within the retail and FMCG sector, which will be invaluable as we expand further.
“Prior to the pandemic, the Snappy Group was already established in both hospitality and grocery home delivery. The lockdown has served to accelerate the online trend, but we strongly believe that the shift in consumer behaviour will persist in the long term. While we expect the rapid rate of growth in deliveries to slow slightly as lockdown eases through the summer months, the online market is a long way from maturation.
“Our mission is to give communities on demand access to the products of local businesses. In this context, our platform is based on genuine partnerships and the principle of mutual benefit. The platform therefore evolves to suit their needs and I believe our flexibility, commitment and commission structure differentiate us from our competitors.”
The Snappy Shopper app:
- Consumers can order groceries from their local convenience store and have them delivered by the store’s own drivers to their homes from as little as 30 minutes
- Retailers can increase revenues significantly with average basket spend more than trebling online compared to in-store
- Snappy Shopper enables retailers to maintain their in-store value proposition online by limiting the charges that lead to consumers facing higher prices when ordering
- The company currently serves retailers from most major players and has partnership agreements with several regional Co-ops, Nisa and Spar.
