It wasn’t a particularly well-kept secret, but Spar Scotland CEO Colin McLean’s announcement at the company’s recent tradeshow and conference that David Sands’ stores were joining Spar still managed to cause a kerfuffle and raise a few eyebrows into the bargain.
David is a notoriously canny businessman and the decision will not have been taken lightly – so it was a major PR coup for CJ Lang and the timing couldn’t have been better for McLean.
Being able to unveil his latest recruit added an extra layer of sparkle to an already impressive event, but it also came at a time when the symbol group market is in a state of flux. Or perhaps turmoil is a better way to describe it, at least in certain quarters.
Nisa’s woes are well documented, and David Sands is unlikely to be the last Nisa customer to make for the exit. What happens next at Nisa is anyone’s guess – they don’t have their troubles to seek – but one thing is for sure: Spar Scotland securing David Sands is the clearest indication yet that Spar Scotland is genuinely back in the game and its proposition is a credible one. The logic runs something like this: “If it’s good enough for David, it’s good enough for anybody.”
The last few years have had a remarkable effect on our industry and the current challenges we’re encountering continue to change the face of local retailing in Scotland. With costs skyrocketing, the old rules of thumb have gone out the window. Everything is up in the air, and everything is up for grabs.
Many of the leading symbol groups, including Spar, are rubbing their hands, of course, but their game has changed too. For years, pretty much all of them preached but rarely practised a policy of ‘quality, not quantity’ when it came to recruiting stores. These days, they are being much more selective. Very few of them want small stores doing £10k or £15k a week. So, is the market set to polarise even further? And what will happen to small stores where retailers used to be able to make a half-decent living but can’t any longer because their operating costs have doubled or tripled?
These are worrying times for our sector and the light at the end of the tunnel is still a very long way away for many.
Antony Begley, Publishing Director
Sands of time
It wasn’t a particularly well-kept secret, but Spar Scotland CEO Colin McLean’s announcement at the company’s recent tradeshow and conference that David Sands’ stores were joining Spar still managed to cause a kerfuffle and raise a few eyebrows into the bargain.
David is a notoriously canny businessman and the decision will not have been taken lightly – so it was a major PR coup for CJ Lang and the timing couldn’t have been better for McLean.
Being able to unveil his latest recruit added an extra layer of sparkle to an already impressive event, but it also came at a time when the symbol group market is in a state of flux. Or perhaps turmoil is a better way to describe it, at least in certain quarters.
Nisa’s woes are well documented, and David Sands is unlikely to be the last Nisa customer to make for the exit. What happens next at Nisa is anyone’s guess – they don’t have their troubles to seek – but one thing is for sure: Spar Scotland securing David Sands is the clearest indication yet that Spar Scotland is genuinely back in the game and its proposition is a credible one. The logic runs something like this: “If it’s good enough for David, it’s good enough for anybody.”
The last few years have had a remarkable effect on our industry and the current challenges we’re encountering continue to change the face of local retailing in Scotland. With costs skyrocketing, the old rules of thumb have gone out the window. Everything is up in the air, and everything is up for grabs.
Many of the leading symbol groups, including Spar, are rubbing their hands, of course, but their game has changed too. For years, pretty much all of them preached but rarely practised a policy of ‘quality, not quantity’ when it came to recruiting stores. These days, they are being much more selective. Very few of them want small stores doing £10k or £15k a week. So, is the market set to polarise even further? And what will happen to small stores where retailers used to be able to make a half-decent living but can’t any longer because their operating costs have doubled or tripled?
These are worrying times for our sector and the light at the end of the tunnel is still a very long way away for many.
Antony Begley, Publishing Director
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