It’s been a more complex task than anticipated but the refit of the tillpoint and food to go area is almost complete – and we have high hopes for the new range.
by Antony Begley
Refitting the tillpoint and food to go area hasn’t been without its challenges; that’s just a straightforward fact. If anything, the major refit work which took place over three days and evenings was actually the easiest part of the refit. Neil Mackay and his team from Vertex got stuck in and rattled through the bulk of the work with little fuss. But since then it has taken us around a month to fix a number of seemingly inconsequential but actually quite important tweaks ands details to ensure we got through our snagging list.
We are however almost complete and we’re now onto the entirely aesthetic final challenges like adding lettering above the hot food area, designing some menus and price lists and finalising exactly how we’ll merchandise the products within the sandwich filling serveover and the hot hold. It’s been a tough battle but we’re very pleased with the results.
What now?
With the new kit now in place, our plan is very simple. The shop is renowned in the area as the place to go for breakfast and lunch. We have a hospital opposite and a steady trade from taxi drivers and workmen. The footfall to that part of the store is already high, but we reckon we can take it higher and encourage those visiting to spend a little more.
The previous area was messy, not purpose-built and generally not that attractive. We believe that by making the section look modern, clean and professional we can achieve our aims.
Made to order
We sell almost 3,000 rolls a month, which is staggering. Many of these are pre-filled rolls that fly out the door five days a week. We have retained these rolls, albeit we don’t produce nearly as many pre-filled each day. Instead we are now using the new chilled serveover to allow us to make baguettes, sandwiches and rolls filled fresh to order.
This service is available from 6am till around 7pm every day and is already proving popular.
Our intention is to soon begin baking off baguettes and specialist breads in our new Cuisine de France oven and start offering these to our customers. Who can resist the smell of freshly baked bread? Or the unique taste of a freshly prepared snack in a still-warm baguette?
We have a core range of freshly made sandwich fillings but we intend to add new fillings every month on a limited edition basis. If the fillings prove popular we’ll retain them. If not, we’ll try another one the following month.
Hot range
The new much larger hot hold, again from Cuisine de France, allows us to retain our existing basic range of sausages, bacon, black pudding and so on but also to massively expand our range by adding products from the Cuisine de France range: sausage rolls, steak slices, bacon and cheese turnovers and so on.
We’ll also complement that with a wide range of sweet products that are being introduced for the first time – and we’re obviously hoping that we can tempt our food to go customers into picking up a little cup of £1 price marked mini doughnuts or a pastry to round off their lunch.
Monthly specials
With such an extensive range of Cuisine de France products available to us we intend to add in a monthly limited edition special to tempt our customers, and keep our offer fresh and exciting. Again, if the limited editions prove popular, we’ll retain them. If not, we won’t. No rocket science involved.
Counter area
The counter area has now come into its own. It’s clean, clutter free and much easier to clean, stock, merchandise and shop. The entire Wrigley range has been retained and we have space to add a load of hanging bags and kids sweets as well as some ‘seasonal’ lines like fresh fruit, disposable hankies, breakfast bars and more.
We’ve also added contactless payment technology and are in the process of adding Apple Pay. It’s never been easier to spend money in Woodlands Local!
