Fully refitted at the end of 2023, Spar Erskine has continued to shine with its spectacular bread and bakery offer deemed the best in the business at this year’s SLR Awards.
By Antony Begley
As many retailers know, fully refitting a store can in some senses be the easy bit: the hard part is keeping it looking the way it did on the day of the grand re-opening. Fortunately for CJ Lang & Son, the fate of its swanky new 3,000sq ft Spar store in Erskine was always in safe hands with experienced and talented manager Paul Kenyon at the helm.
The store had traded for over 25 years but was refitted to the tune of £500,000 at the tail end of 2023 to bring it up to the standards of Spar Scotland’s modern design ethos. Spar Erskine was nothing short of stunning when it re-opened – and thanks to Paul and his team, it was just as stunning when the SLR Awards judges visited earlier this year.
A big, spacious store, it’s packed with all the current local retailing mod cons: fancy multi-coloured LED lighting, digital SELs throughout, a striking drinks-to-go section, closed-door eco-friendly chillers, smart dark flooring and shelving, and lots more besides. All told, it looks a thoroughly modern convenience store – and it’s just as tidy, pristine, clean and immaculately merchandised as ever.
Nowhere is that attention to detail more evident than in the frankly huge bread and bakery offer.
Since the refit, sales in the category rocketed with bakery up 31% and bread up 14.9%. The refit paid special attention to this vital category which saw the imposing main fixture sited right in the middle of the store while a range of tempting cakes and other bakery products are dotted around high traffic areas of the store in FSDUs to drive impulse sales.
A dedicated serveover at the tillpoint offers shoppers a final opportunity to indulge themselves with a sweet treat or two.
Paul and his team work closely with the major bakers like Hovis to ensure that the store has the big brand products that many customers expect, but an extensive range of Spar own-brand lines offers value alternatives while there’s also an exceptional range of products sourced from local and regional bakers.
A dedicated aisle-end features a range of rolls and other bakery lines from Browning’s while the main fixture plays host to a strong range of quality own-label and branded products, many sourced from Ireland, something that CJ Lang does well through its wider Spar network.
The store also offers a wide selection of thaw-and-serve products under the CJ’s food-to-go own-brand umbrella, exclusive to Spar company-owned stores, from traybakes to donuts and apple pies.
NPD is enthusiastically embraced with promotions and secondary siting used to great effect to get those exciting new lines in front of customers.
The bread and bakery range effectively delivers something for every taste and every pocket. From super-plush treats to great-value loaves, shoppers can find what they want. Just as importantly, Paul and his team work the shopfloor obsessively, replenishing shelves and making sure the merchandising is on point at all times.
Spar Erskine is a great example of what a modern local retailing outlet can look like, delivering a fantastic shopping experience for customers. With competition so fierce in the sector these days and costs so high, the store demonstrates the critical importance of staying ahead of the game and keeping up with – or surpassing – customer expectations.
