Londis is targeting pharmacies and forecourt sites to boost its estate this year. Sales director Terry Bedford said he was talking to a number of multiple pharmacists interested in adding a grocery offer after the success of last year's tie up with Unichem. "We see some substantial growth coming from that area this year, but we are also homing in on fuel sites." The chain now has almost 300 forecourt members. A third Londis branded chemist and c-store is coming onstream shortly and 10 further sites are in various stages of development. Bedford declined to comment on the loss of business from recent signing Leda Stores, which went into administration last week, but said the level of new enquiries about membership made him very optimistic about the prospects for the coming year. "There are 85 stores being processed for new membership as we speak. We've had 250 enquiries in the last 10 days." Wholesale turnover grew 9% to £492m for the 12 months to January 25. During the year, Londis made a net gain of 65 stores taking its total to 2,128. Bedford said average spend from the 300 Londis retailers investing in store developments during the year had rocketed up 44% to £22,700 per project. Year-on-year sales growth from stores adopting the new Genesis format has topped 30%. This year, at least another 42 stores are earmarked for conversion to the format to add to the existing 40. Retail director Terry Riddy said the growth was attributable to increased customer spend in the stores as well as more traffic. "Genesis retailers are enjoying the benefits of increased turnover, profit levels and customer spend in a marketplace where trade is under threat from multiples and other competitors." {{NEWS }}

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