Woodlands Local was pleased to receive a thumbs-up from Walkers on its crisps and snacks category, but there was still some scope for improvement.
by Antony Begley
As it is in most local retailing stores, crisps and snacks is an important category at Woodlands Local. While we sell a lot of hot food and food to go, the store remains firmly viewed by our customers as a true convenience store. Grocery plays a minimal role. It’s all about crisps and snacks, confectionery, tobacco and soft drinks.
So we were naturally delighted when a heavyweight team from PepsiCo visited the store last month and gave us a very pleasing thumbs up, almost across the board. Alan McCaffer and Colin Frew popped along, at our request, to offer some tips and advice on what we were doing well and what we could be doing better.
“I’ll be honest and say that, all things considered, your crisps and snacks are in very good shape in Woodlands,” said McCaffer. “The range is great. You’re not missing any key lines and you’re not carrying too much lower end stuff that takes up space but doesn’t deliver rate of sale or profits.”
That was the good news. Naturally, however, McCaffer and Frew did have some suggestions to make and arranged a re-visit to implement the plans we agreed with them.
The suggestions were along the following lines:
- Separate out the £1 bags, which are driving the market
- Give the £1 bags a more prominent siting in-store, and more space to breathe
- Create a permanent £1 bag core range
- Add one or two lines to the £1 bag range
- Add in one or two lines in the standard pack format
- Remove a shelf on the main fixture to make it easier for customers to see everything that’s on the fixture more easily
- Dedicate more facings to the standout key lines to drive impulse sales and make restocking easier
- Add a new smaller siting facing the hot food counter to drive cross-category sales
- Add a parasite unit to the front of the breakfast / lunch / soft drinks chiller to boost impulse sales
The team duly returned and implemented the ideas and the results look very tidy indeed. It’s still far too early to judge what impact the changes are having on sales, but we will report back in the next issue of SLR.
