Kwik Save's availability woes have been confirmed by exclusive research carried out for The Grocer by Storecheck Marketing, with between a quarter and two thirds of products out of stock in major categories.

The store marketing group, which visited six Kwik Save stores across the UK, found average availability in the tobacco gantry was running at 38%. Four stores had less than half the listed tobacco products on shelf.

In five out of the six stores, the tobacco area was described as either "quite empty" or "very empty" by shoppers. At four of the six stores, the shoppers said the tobacco fixture was worse than other areas. And at two of the stores, 95% or more of tobacco products were reported as being out of stock.

Chillers were also badly affected, with availability running at an average of 62%. Frozen food cabinets had an average availability level of 70%. Three of the stores visited had freezers that were either "quite empty" or "very empty", according to the shoppers. The bread fixture was apparently running at an availability level of 63%.

When they asked shop assistants when missing products would be available, the reply received in four out of the six stores was that they were unsure.

Colin Harper, MD of Storecheck, said: "This seems significantly poorer than any other survey we have done."

He said availability levels in similar stores to Kwik Save outlets would commonly be 80% at worst.

He added: "I find it concerning that staff were not able to comment on out-of-

stocks in any kind of meaningful way. That wouldn't get customers coming back."

Stores were visited by mystery shoppers on Thursday and Friday last week. The number of out-of-stock items was determined by comparing missing products with shelf-edge labels.

The beers, wines & spirits category recorded the best results on availability in the six stores visited, with 14% of products out of stock.

The research was commissioned by The Grocer after anecdotal evidence indicated that Kwik Save stores were being hit by poor availability, particularly in the tobacco fixture.

Kwik Save was bought from Somerfield in February by a consortium called Back to the Future, led by Richard Kirk, chief executive of the Peacock Group.

At the time, a core area of concern was how stores were going to be supplied. However, in June Kwik Save announced a £9m contract with TDG to supply all its ambient and frozen products from its Appleton Link warehouse.

It has since claimed that it is working to resolve supply chain problems. However, the chain had offered no comment on the situation as The Grocer went to press.