If anyone knows what a successful Grocer 33 store looks like, it’s Frank Young. The runaway victory by his Waitrose Walton-le-Dale store in this week’s Preston mystery shop was the third of Young’s tenure, and the fifth by the store since 2018. With a score of 95 out of 100, it’s the store’s most resounding win yet.
He puts it down to his 193-strong store team who have the “permission” to do what they feel is right for their customers. Young sits down with The Grocer to talk about why Waitrose is investing so much into ready meals, winning the premium shop in Preston and the trends that are driving basket spend.
This is your third win in five years; you must be delighted. The branch is on its fifth win! I joined in November 2020, during the crazy time that we don’t speak about, and we’ve won three times since then. The latest win is a fantastic confidence boost for the team as we go into peak. It’ll help us understand where we’re at, and what we can achieve for the rest of the year.
You also marked 25 years with the partnership last year. How did you celebrate? It was fabulous. The business gave me some vouchers as a reward, so I celebrated with a break with the family to one of the partnership hotels. You also get six months leave, and I’ve booked that in for next year to spend a bit of time with the family. We’ll take a significant holiday.
What’s changed in store since we last spoke? A new Kelly Deli sushi bar has been installed. We also had a bit of reconfiguration of our ambient area, expanding a number of products and categories. Digital shelf-edge labels were launched at the start of the year. It’s been a huge game changer for us in terms of efficiency, by taking out a task that was time-consuming. It looks really smart on the shelves as well.
What’s it like to be a retailer in Preston? It’s fantastically welcoming, the community is superb. We’re a destination shop, located on a retail park, so people enjoy spending a long time in branch. We don’t want to feel like a rushed shop. It’s a larger trolley size than elsewhere. We’ve been here 14 years now, and during that time shoppers have seen that the shop’s got more investment and improved in different ways for them.
Preston is well served for premium supermarkets, being the home of Booths. How do you stand out? Being the size we are, our range is definitely a draw. Many of our shoppers are honest about the fact that they shop between our competitors and tell us what they like about us. For example, our counters are popular, and we’re adding new lines to make sure we keep them interesting. We just want our shop to feel like an enjoyable experience. Our USP is that we will always give fantastic service. For me as a manager, it’s very important that our partners feel they have the permission to make the right decisions for customers.
Waitrose is investing into its ready meal offer. How are you promoting the new products? It’s a significant multi-year investment. We’ve got 29 new lines coming into the No.1 Range, and there’s been a repackaging too, notably on our Asian range. Any time we get new products we host tastings in the dining room for partners, so they can confidently talk about them with customers. More generally, it’s a new option that people are buying into. The price of eating out now is significantly higher, especially for a family. So to have some quality food that crucially doesn’t take long to prepare but still tastes fantastic is a great alternative.
What other trends are you noticing in Preston and how are you trying to cater to them? The omnichannel element of the store in terms of the popularity of on demand continues to surprise me. Despite Tesco’s recent launch onto Deliveroo, we’ve not really been affected, which to me shows that our customers really are food lovers and particularly want the products we sell. Another is how aware customers are of what they’re putting into their bodies. We’ve really expanded our alcohol-free and free-from sections.
JLP results were this week. What has Jason Tarry’s message been to partners? He’s landed really positively. It’s been a clear, uncomplicated message: we have a plan. When we’re doing things and there’s a clear purpose, that really motivates partners.
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