With a new shop in Lesmahagow taking Asif Ashraf’s estate to 10 he decided to break the mould by walking away from Costcutter and relaunching all his stores under his own fascia. Welcome to the world of Smartways.
By Kevin Scott
In an age when symbol groups are falling over themselves to recruit new retailers, there is undoubtedly a shift from unaffiliated to symbol store. This environment is what makes Asif Ashraf’s decision to leave Costcutter and rebrand his 10 shops under a new, independent fascia of his own all the more remarkable.
The opening of a new store in Lesmahagow last month also marked the first Smartways store. “I made the decision to leave Costcutter within a month of the P&H deal being announced,” says Asif, from the training room above the former Co-op store in Lesmahagow’s high street. “I’m still on good terms with them and may continue to buy from them,” he adds. For now though, the store is being supplied by Nisa and United Wholesale Scotland – along with a number of local suppliers.
It’s a bold move, but Asif has years of retail experience and his wider family runs over 60 stores throughout Lanarkshire. A former Londis retailer, Asif says: “I was content enough with Londis until the integration into Musgrave post-acquisition caused a few problems. I can’t help but feel that could be repeated when Costcutter’s new supplier deal kicks in. I’m sure they will get there with it, but I don’t want to wait. I left Costcutter only because I wanted complete independence.”
All 10 stores will have changed to the new fascia by Christmas and Asif has plans to expand a central distribution depot, which will only increase his buying power. Suppliers will make single deliveries and a newly acquired fleet of vans will deliver to each store. “We’re already getting local produce delivered centrally and it’s proving very effective for us,” he says. Asif may miss access to a promotional cycle, but he is currently negotiating with his suppliers to put together his own promotions. Death of the high street The shop is based on the site of a former Co-op, which closed last year. “Tesco had opened on the outskirts of town and I think the Co panicked a bit,” says Asif.
Throughout our conversation he continually mourns the death of the traditional high street, pointing out that Tesco’s arrival wasn’t fully welcomed by locals – all the more so when the local butcher closed. “People didn’t like the way Tesco moved in. They forced themselves onto the village so people like to use our store.” Crucially, the move from Costcutter doesn’t involve major refits so the costs are minimal across his estate, with the exception of the 2,800 sq ft Lesmahagow store. Having been closed for almost a year until Asif bought the freehold, he’s had to give the store a fresh interior, and an entirely new layout. Working with a shopfitter and using his years of experience, Asif has created a store that fits with the current model of mission shopping. It was only the second week when SLR visited, but unlike many stores of its size in the early throes of trading, every shelf was packed and most impressively, a huge range of produce from local suppliers was evident.
A huge supporting pillar in the middle of the store dictated the layout to a centre extent, but Asif’s decision to opt for wide aisles is inspired. It gives the shop the feel of a mini supermarket with plenty of space to browse. “We tried to base the layout on mission shopping – so when you first come in there are newspapers before moving into the chilled produce in the first aisle,” he says.
There is a huge amount of fresh produce, from fruit and vegetables (which are all loose and not pre-packed), to meats, dairy and meal solutions. “Without the other shops we couldn’t have such a strong fresh offering,” says Asif. “We’ve got buying power and because of the volumes we shift across the estate we can be more demanding with suppliers over price and deliveries. We can say, ‘we need this, this and this,’ and they’ll get it for us.” A strong position to be in, for sure. Next along from that is an impulse aisle with crisps and confectionery, and at the top of that aisle is the main soft drinks chiller. Wandering around the store it all makes sense – for example a secondary soft drinks chiller sits next to the newspapers to cater for the news mission. “That’s roughly half the floor space, not counting the till area,” says Asif. “The other half is taken up with grocery shopping, frozen food and our off-trade section. I deliberately made the till area open to give a perception of space.”
It’s a lesson in good store management. Big Night In shoppers visit the impulse aisle and swing by off-trade without being directed around half the shop. And it’s working. “I hoped we could bring in £20,000 a week and we did that in the first week,” says Asif. “I think people were just happy to see the shop open again after the Co-op closed.” Being in a prime site on the high street meant that it was fairly evident a new trader had taken over the site but despite the strong start Asif is still planning a grand opening in January, while will involve local MP Michael McCann, whose blog lamenting the closure of the Co-op first drew Asif’s attention to the site’s availability. Behind the scenes So, with 10 stores now trading under his own fascia, is the job more demanding than ever? Asif laughs. “No. It’s easier.
Jim Botterill said to me once that having between three and six stores was a complete nightmare, but beyond that it gets better. He was right. Once you get past that point you can invest in head office staff and you’re not running about as much.” Asif himself is based in head office, with a store manager looking after this store and another close by – but he does aim to spend two days a week on the shop floor. Behind the scenes is an area where Asif is particularly comfortable. He trained as an IT programmer so when he grew wearisome with his EPoS system, he wrote a completely new program from scratch!
Not only does this system power stock management in his stable, but he has sold the M-House software into 150 other shops, including a number of Day Today stores. Asif is confident another 100 can come on board. That facet of the business alone now employs 12 programmers in the company’s Motherwell headquarters. “From way back I’ve believed in the power of EPoS,” he says. “It helps you keep track of what is selling, what isn’t, wastage. You can’t count everything on shelf yourself, but you can print off weekly reports.” Not content with designing his EPoS system, Asif also designed the Smartways logo and helped design of his leaflet.
Even with all this, he’s not shy about seeking out other retailers when he needs to. “I often phone other retailers for advice. Symbols provide a lot of help, but our management team has enough experience now; everyone in head office has their area of expertise.” It’s quite a set up, and one that proves the future of independent retailing is in safe hands.