Booker is relaunching its Premier fascia in a bid to become "the UK's biggest and best symbol group" and convert 1,000 new retailers to the cause.

The cash & carry giant is re-classifying its 2,250 Premier stores as small, medium or large and introducing a core offer of 500 of its best-selling lines to boost sales.

Stores under 800 sq ft will be classed as small and given the new name of Premier Express. Stores between 800 sq ft and 2,000 sq ft will be classed as medium, while stores over 2,000 sq ft will be classed as large.

"In the next three years we want to recruit more than 1,000 new Premiers," said Steve Fox, Booker's director of retail and Premier development. "We want to reinvest in 600 existing Premiers and implement bestsellers across all stores."

Premier's purple and yellow fascia will not change and retailers will still be able to include the name of their store on the exterior of the shop alongside the Premier logo. However, inside, the name of the store will be used instead of the word 'Premier' in the logo.

"By doing this we're bringing Premier closer to the local community," said Fox. "Shoppers know their local retailer well and often call the store by the name of the owner."

The 500 best-selling lines will be identified using a new tool called Premier Range Builder and will be made up of nine essential lines, 35 Euro Shopper lines, 210 must-stock 'green ticket' lines and 246 other bestsellers.

Retailers will also be able to choose from a further 7,000 optional lines, as well as local lines, leaving them a 75% choice of the range they stock. The tool provides depot specific data, updated weekly, on each range and sales data for each product. Retailers are also being offered a bespoke EPoS system.

Phase one of the new format was launched this week to four stores - in Wolverhampton, Sheffield and Derby. One of the two Wolverhampton stores has already increased sales 46% since introducing the new format.

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