After an enforced five year hiatus out of local retailing, Wilson Rea is back on the scene with a thoroughly impressive new Nisa Local store in Lanark. Antony Begley was the first journalist invited for a look around.
Wilson Rea will always hold a special place in the hearts of the team at SLR. He was, after all, the first ever winner of the coveted Scottish Local Retailer of the Year Award at the first ever SLR Awards, all those years ago. Back then Wilson and his wife Catherine, along with his mum and dad, were in the process of building what was to become a very successful mini-chain of stores in and around the Lanark area, Rea’s Select as it was known.
The business was performing very well at that time and Wilson was being feted as one of the sharpest independent retailers in Scotland so it was no surprise when the family was approached by the Co-op. After much soul-searching they decided to sell, thereby allowing his parents to take advantage of early retirement, which left Wilson with a few quid in his back pocket… but no job.
A clause in the contract of the sale of Rea’s Select business to the Co-op, however, (the family still owns the property) prevented Wilson from getting back into retail for five long years. He filled his time running a skip hire business and designing and building Back Brae House, a luxury B&B, but the itch to return to retail was always there, desperate to be scratched. When the five years were finally up Wilson immediately began the process that was to see him acquire the freehold for a shiny new Nisa store in Lanark.
“I was desperate to get back into retail, I really was,” says Wilson. “I missed it, you know? And now that I’m back in the store every day I’m really enjoying it again. It feels like I’ve come home!”
The store in question is a fairly chunky one, probably around 1,800 sq ft of shop floor plus one of the plushest (and roomiest) storage and back office spaces you’re likely to find in a c-store. It’s a Nisa Local store and it’s kitted out to the same high spec as the other new Nisa stores that have been springing up across Scotland in the last few months.
Tidy, clean, professional, bright and easy to shop – it’s easy to see why the Nisa model is proving so attractive to so many retailers at the moment.
Built in what was formerly a Citroen car showroom, the store is literally side by side with a Shell forecourt – resulting in a relationship that the straight-talking retailer describes as “not exactly cordial”. But Wilson has been around the block once or twice and has developed a thick enough skin not to be upset at this particular noisy neighbour.
They are prone to getting upset at “wee daft things” though, says Wilson – like the barbecue he mischievously arranged to celebrate the opening of the store four weeks ago. Why a petrol station would get uptight at a barbecue next door is beyond him.
“Ach, it was away round the other side of the shop – it wasn’t really dangerous. Even the firemen that came agreed that,” he laughs.
A more important problem of having a forecourt for a neighbour however is a lack of parking right outside the store. There is a dedicated parking space at the other end of the forecourt but it’s not obvious to shoppers so there’s a bit of customer communication work to be done there, and it’s something Wilson is working on with professional exterior and in-store signage.
Lanark itself is a busy town with plenty of retail offerings for locals to choose from but the store’s site on the main street should help ensure decent levels of consistent passing trade. Being next to the forecourt could also prove to be a boon in the long run, bringing extra custom but without the hassle of providing wet sales.
As for the store itself, the awkward shape of the former car showroom meant that the refit was far from straightforward, including the removal and adaptation of supporting walls. Carried out by Cruden Contracts, a relative newcomer to the local retailing shopfitting world, the job required considerable planning time and a lot of creative thinking, but the result is thoroughly impressive.
“I have to say that I was hugely impressed by the shopfitters and Darren Cruden himself was on site throughout the entire process,” says Wilson. “It was far from a standard refit because of the shape of the space but having Darren around all day every day really meant that we could sort every little problem or challenge as it cropped up.”
Finishing has been done to a very high standard while the quality of the materials used throughout is impossible to find fault with. Wilson isn’t keen to divulge how much he spent, though he does admit that it was “a lot”. And it looks like it too, but in today’s modern local retailing world with cut throat competition and increasingly picky customers, cutting corners is never the way to go.
The trademark closed door fridges which characterise modern Nisa Local stores line the walls, replete with an extensive array of chilled and frozen produce. An extensive grocery and convenience range is complemented by broad selection of beers, wines and spirits, much of the stock chilled in those same closed door chillers.
Getting a licence for the store was a particular challenge for Wilson, and one that actually postponed the opening of the store – and even when it came to the final hearing he was far from confident.
“When we turned up we were told that there were nine objections and a few of them have even turned up to give their objections in person,” he explains. “So I wasn’t confident at all and I thought all the work had been for nothing, but fortunately they saw sense and here we are.”
As a nod to his old maw and paw, Wilson has added a couple of dedicated areas in store – Pearl’s Pantry hot food counter and Ernie’s Apples fresh fruit and veg bay. And yes, Pearl is his mum and Ernie is his dad.
Both sections add interest and personality to the store with the fresh section being particularly eye-catching thanks to the use of rustic style baskets and chalkboard signs. Nisa has since asked Wilson about how he put the section together, presumably with the intention of replicating a version of it in other stores.
The hot food offering is strengthened by the addition of a branded microwave from Kepak Convenience Foods and a rather nifty touch screen coffee machine from Simply Coffee, complete with on-screen TV ads from relevant advertisers like Nestle and Cadbury to tempt customers into some purchases to go with their latte. Does Wilson see any of the cash from those advertisers? A snort and a derisory laugh answers my question.
The ranging throughout the store was done initially by the Nisa team but has subsequently been “tweaked” by Wilson to more accurately reflect the tastes of his customers. One or two suppliers have also been in to help range and merchandise some of the fixtures but Wilson admits to being slightly disappointed at the lack of contact from many of the major suppliers.
Virtually everything he buys from the store he gets from Nisa with three chilled and frozen deliveries a week and one ambient. So far he hasn’t had any delivery issues at all. “I don’t even have a van now because I never have to go to the cash and carry,” he says.
So how have the first four weeks back in the saddle been? “We’re doing great in the mornings and great in the evenings but the daytime can be a bit slower than I’d like, to be honest,” he admits. But he still has plenty in the pipeline to drive interest and a big focus over the coming weeks is the hot food offering.
He explains: “We’ve got a good solid traditional offering like pies and rolls and bacon and so on but we’ve also tried some more innovative stuff like big roasts and those went down really well so, now that we’ve got all the teething problems sorted out we can start trialling a few things to see what works but I’m pretty confident there’s a lot of mileage in a broader hot food offering.”
So a solid start then, plenty to build on and the makings of another great chapter in the career of this natural born retailer. It’s great to see Wilson back in the game – and we’re confident the Scottish local retailing scene will be all the stronger for his return.
