Richard Fox

Richard Fox

Winner: Sainsbury’s Leamington Spa, Warwickshire
Store manager: Richard Fox
Opened: 1989
Size: 70,000 sq ft
Market share: 17%
Nearest rivals: Morrisons - 0.5 miles, Tesco - 1.0 mile, Asda - 1.2 miles
Store data source: Analysis by CACI. Call the market planning group on 020 7602 6000

How long have you been at this store? I’ve been here for three years, arriving just after this store last won in 2010, but I’ve been with Sainsbury’s for 32 years.

This is Sainsbury’s CEO Justin King’s local store isn’t it - do you ever see him shopping? Yes, he pops in the store or shops online.

What’s been the secret of your success as a GSM?We have 420 colleagues, and engagement is tremendous: everyone is absolutely brilliant at what they do and we pride ourselves on our great customer service and availability.

How do you gather customer feedback? We have an instant customer feedback system called ‘Tell Sainsbury’s’, which lets customers give us their feedback via email. We get that instantly so we can react very quickly. I also spend about 80% to 90% of my time on the shop floor talking to customers to find out how they find the store.

And what do they say? They actually mirror what your mystery shopper found - high store standards, clear aisles and great availability.

Have you made any changes to your store in recent months? We recently had a refresh in store. The bakery was given a new layout and we also made some changes to the non-food department to highlight products and show us off as a destination shop.

Has the recent good weather helped sales? Very much so. Barbecues that had previously been sitting on the shelves have been flying out and everything that people need to enjoy the sunshine is doing well. We want to keep this momentum going.

Sainsbury’s is sponsoring some high-profile athletics this summer - what has feedback been like on this? It’s gone down an absolute storm. The events sold out in a matter of hours in London and three colleagues from our store won an internal competition to attend the Birmingham event.