Safeway is revamping its London stores in a bid to win more customers, which chief executive Carlos Criado-Perez says will pave the way to recovery in the next six months. He said improvement would eventually come through concentrating on its deep cut promotion strategy combined with emphasis on fresh foods, instore availability and customer service. Safeway recorded a £30m drop in profits to £245m while sales grew 4.3% to £8.2bn in the year to 1 April. Criado-Perez said improvements would be made in deli, fresh produce, prepared foods and bakery, but refused to say how much would be spent, or what shoppers would see in store. He revealed the programme would be rolled out across all stores by October. He said promotions would continue as the lynchpin of its recovery strategy, saying Every Day Low Pricing was just a slogan. "Consumers aren't interested in gimmicks ­ we will concentrate on the products and prices," he said. He defended his decision to axe the ABC loyalty card scheme, saying the cards were "worthless, flashy bits of plastic". He added: "The way to loyalty lies in availability, price and customer service for the best products." But he confirmed Safeway would not invest significantly in e-commerce until its bricks and mortar stores were booming. Apart from joining Tesco and Sainsbury and other european retailers as part of one of two online retail exchanges ­ GlobalNetXchange or WorldWide ­ Criado-Perez said money would only be spent on perfecting its Collect & Go service, currently available in just six stores. "No-one know the secret to effective fulfillment of home shopping. Packing from stores leaves stock levels depleted and hinders customers, so we'll probably go with dedicated picking centres when the time is right." And he gave a similar picture of Safeway's advertising and marketing intentions, saying the company would continue with its local leafleting rather than big national tv campaigns. {{NEWS }}

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