Stars News Shops is pressing ahead with the reformatting of its estate, which began at the end of May, with plans to have converted 12 of its 200 stores by the end of July. MD Paul Siviter said that the group already had three of the new Stars Fresh n Local c-stores in operation, as well as two Stars Express stores which offer a CTN plus format. Siviter said the first Stars Express, at Great Barr in Birmingham, had shown a £2,000 sales rise in the week after its conversion, compared with a forecast of £600. A second Express store had just opened at Meriden, in the West Midlands. The first Fresh n Local store was a new build (The Grocer, June 1, p5) but the next two were conversions, and Siviter said they both recorded sales uplifts. The company is also planning to revamp its Stars News CTN format. Four examples of each of the three new formats will be trading by the end of the month. "We will take six weeks to evaluate them before we kick on with the conversions," he added. The group is also close to signing a deal for new EPoS. The Stars News Shops business is ranked sixth in The Grocer Top 50. {{NEWS }}