Woolworths and Spar are finalising details of a trial of Spar branded concessions in two or three Woolworths Local stores. The trial concessions will be the first of 50 in-store Spars in Woolworths Local high street shops planned for this year, and locations are being kept under wraps. Spar has already completed a roll-out of concessions to 19 Woolworths General Store c-stores since the start of March, after Woolworth's dropped its previous supplier Booker. Spar retail director Steve Blackmore said: "We are working on store plans for Local trials. A certain amount of space is needed to do food well, around 400 to 500 sq ft. That means we can only look at Locals which are around 5,500 sq ft so that we do not limit other areas of the store." Trials of Spar concessions at four smaller Local stores in parallel with the WGS launch were called to a halt after a few days because of lack of space. Blakemore said: "Woolworths had allocated space in four small Local stores for a small Spar concession, but there was no way enough turnover. This time we've been involved from the start. in deciding on locations and size." Spar and Woolworths are also planning to strike a deal over supply to Woolworth's fourteen Big W superstores. Blakemore said: "We are still negotiating, but it is now unlikely that we will open branded Spar concessions in Big W, instead we are looking at supplying just beers, wines and spirits." He added that Spar would not supply its own brand to Big W without an official Spar branded concession, so that customers did not become confused over who owned the brand. {{NEWS }}

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