Yamoah Kusi-Mensah has only been in post at Asda Southgate for three months, but he’s already achieved a significant milestone: the first G33 win of his nearly 20-year career with the supermarket.
Surrounded by affluent boroughs and residents, one might think it would be a challenge for the typically value-focused Asda to draw shoppers in, but Kusi-Mensah credits the store’s “relentless” and community-focused team of 250 colleagues for creating a “unique” shopping trip.
He sat down with The Grocer to talk about how Asda Southgate has been winning affluent trade, Asda’s fresh produce overhaul and his approach to promoting from within.
Who are your shoppers, and what are they coming in for? We’ve got a lot of very affluent customers and a very diverse customer base. They shop for quality, customer service and value. Southgate is a typical family shop, so we’re very busy over the weekends. Average basket spend is between £40-£45, which is quite substantive. We have no home delivery service, so customers are coming here because it’s a destination for them. A lot of our shoppers are coming in looking to cook from scratch; they want to get stuff fresh. So, unsurprisingly, our fresh produce stands out as the real winner, because of the quality we can offer them.
Asda isn’t typically seen as an affluent shopper’s destination of choice; how do you win their trade? Lidl, Tesco and Sainsbury’s are our main competition in the area. For us it’s been about shouting out the value and the customer experience that they get in the shop when they come in. They still want value for money. In my three months here, what’s been clear is the underlying thing that makes Southgate unique is the experience they get from our 250 colleagues. Most have been here for a long time and take pride in what they do. For me that speaks volumes about the shop.
You mentioned produce being a standout, improving that has been a real focus for the business. What has the impact been? Yes, that’s right. It’s been really positive and definitely added more value. The department has been brightened up to draw customers in. It’s not just the look and feel, the pricing has been improved, too, which has been very good. For a shop like Southgate, where as I’ve already mentioned a lot of our shoppers are scratch cooking, it’s helped massively.
Availability has been a challenge for Asda over the past couple of years, but yours was excellent, what have you done to improve it? It’s something we take pride in every day. We have our 11am daily huddle, where we discuss our opportunities and areas we need to focus on. But importantly, Asda has rolled out processes for different areas of the store, called Ops Clock. We follow it religiously. As a store manager, things don’t happen by chance. It comes down to the team getting the basics right every day.
Tell me more about your leadership style? I genuinely believe that people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. For me, that means knowing my colleagues, supporting them, recognising their hard work and creating an environment where they feel valued and want to do their best. Great leaders don’t create followers; they create more leaders. So I want to give my colleagues the confidence and the ownership to make decisions, take responsibility and grow themselves.
Of course, but people still need opportunities to progress, what’s your personal approach to talent development? I used to be a part-time colleague in Clapham Junction before somebody saw the talent in me and decided to progress me up the chain, so I try to do the same. I’m proud to say that in every shop I’ve been in, I’ve brought through at least one manager - or team leader as we call them.
What’s your next focus? Are there any things you feel the store could do better? Our non-food area is definitely an opportunity for this store. Because of our customer base, we need got to give them a high end, ‘Marks & Spencer’ kind of feel. That’s my next aim. The profit margin on George and GM is very good for the store and the business.
There are slow signs that Asda is improving, what’s going to maintain that momentum? We’ve gone through the change and now have a bit of stability. The key behind the success we’re seeing is the structure we now have in place. We’ve reset everything we do as a business operationally. We’ve got a clear understanding of what we need to do, when we need to do it and how. As stores we just need to be relentless on those standards.
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