Sainsbury has launched an aggressive promotional campaign in its c-store estate and started trialling a new forecourt format with Shell.
It is also eyeing up further acquisitions in the multiple c-store sector to boost turnover in the 267-store arm by £400m in three years, said director of convenience Jim McCarthy.
“Part of this will be genuine like-for-like sales growth and part of it organic growth, but if really good stores become available in terms of smaller multiples, we’ll have a good look.”
Promotional offers at Sainsbury had traditionally excluded Local stores, he added. But this was beginning to change. “We didn’t previously
promote much in Locals. Now we’re running tailored promotions to suit the format - money off or bogofs rather than six bottles for this price or bulk deals. It’s part of ongoing work with suppliers to develop pack sizes, case sizes and promotions specifically for c-stores.”
Letters had been sent to suppliers of recent acquisitions Bells Stores and Jacksons to iron out discrepancies between the terms they were offering to these smaller chains and Sainsbury, he confirmed. “Obviously, where they were being charged a higher price than Sainsbury, we’d expect that to be resolved.”
The roll-out of the 24-store tie-up with oil giant Shell remained on ice while Sainsbury tested new ranges at selected sites, he added. “We have been tweaking the offer in the last few weeks, looking at the SKU count and range, and looking at the numbers this throws out before making any strategic decisions.”
The original plan had been to roll out 100 sites by 2006.
He would not disclose sales figures for the 11 Sainsbury’s at Bells stores and three Sainsbury’s at Jacksons stores, but claimed their performance post-conversion had exceeded expectations. The next step was to develop a long-term solution for distributing Sainsbury’s chilled own-label lines to the converted stores, he said.
As outlined last autumn, 12 Sainsbury’s Local stores have been earmarked for sale or closure owing to poor locations, he added. “Four have closed already, another four will go in the first two weeks of March and the balance will follow.”
Calls for regulators to restrict acquisitions in the c-store sector by the major multiples were unfair, he added. Although its smaller stores benefited from Sainsbury’s group buying power, they only accounted for 1.9% of the c-store market, he claimed.
Elaine Watson
It is also eyeing up further acquisitions in the multiple c-store sector to boost turnover in the 267-store arm by £400m in three years, said director of convenience Jim McCarthy.
“Part of this will be genuine like-for-like sales growth and part of it organic growth, but if really good stores become available in terms of smaller multiples, we’ll have a good look.”
Promotional offers at Sainsbury had traditionally excluded Local stores, he added. But this was beginning to change. “We didn’t previously
promote much in Locals. Now we’re running tailored promotions to suit the format - money off or bogofs rather than six bottles for this price or bulk deals. It’s part of ongoing work with suppliers to develop pack sizes, case sizes and promotions specifically for c-stores.”
Letters had been sent to suppliers of recent acquisitions Bells Stores and Jacksons to iron out discrepancies between the terms they were offering to these smaller chains and Sainsbury, he confirmed. “Obviously, where they were being charged a higher price than Sainsbury, we’d expect that to be resolved.”
The roll-out of the 24-store tie-up with oil giant Shell remained on ice while Sainsbury tested new ranges at selected sites, he added. “We have been tweaking the offer in the last few weeks, looking at the SKU count and range, and looking at the numbers this throws out before making any strategic decisions.”
The original plan had been to roll out 100 sites by 2006.
He would not disclose sales figures for the 11 Sainsbury’s at Bells stores and three Sainsbury’s at Jacksons stores, but claimed their performance post-conversion had exceeded expectations. The next step was to develop a long-term solution for distributing Sainsbury’s chilled own-label lines to the converted stores, he said.
As outlined last autumn, 12 Sainsbury’s Local stores have been earmarked for sale or closure owing to poor locations, he added. “Four have closed already, another four will go in the first two weeks of March and the balance will follow.”
Calls for regulators to restrict acquisitions in the c-store sector by the major multiples were unfair, he added. Although its smaller stores benefited from Sainsbury’s group buying power, they only accounted for 1.9% of the c-store market, he claimed.
Elaine Watson
No comments yet