Exclusive Julian Hunt Safeway is to dramatically increase the range of services offered in its superstores. The company's chief executive, Carlos Criado-Perez, said: "In our superstores we will be looking at accessory businesses' that are very much upgraded from the ones you see in the industry ­ such as restaurants, photolabs and dry cleaners. "We will pursue that with much more gusto and in much more depth than the industry is doing at the moment here in the UK." Criado-Perez would not say anything more, but made it clear this focus on "accessory businesses" would be a core strategy for the superstores. "We are really increasing dramatically the traffic of our customers ­ now we need to capitalise on that visit as much as we can," he said. Criado-Perez also revealed Safeway was pressing ahead with its best in fresh merchandising initiative following successful trials in 21 stores. The roll-out should take between eight and 10 months to complete. "We have been testing ideas to be sure that what we were doing made economic sense and that we were right in our perceptions," Criado-Perez explained. He said best in fresh was all about displaying fruit and veg, bakery products, deli and cheese lines in an appealing manner that created more in-store theatre. "You only need to go to your local market to see how you can treat fresh produce attractively," he said. "We are talking about making the product become the hero and really working it in a way that allows it to take the leading role, not the fixtures, decoration, packaging or whatever." That means all green plastic boxes for fresh produce, for example, are being withdrawn so that fruit and veg can be stacked by hand. At the same time, the space given over to non-food is being scaled back to focus on kitchen, bedroom, bathroom and table products. Criado-Perez said best in fresh was also about offering shoppers better choice. And this week he unveiled a premium sub brand called The Best, comprising 80 products as diverse as legs of lamb and pâté. Criado-Perez has also modernised the Safeway logo and ditched its Lightening the Load strapline. The new lower case logo will appear on stores, lorries and products in the coming months. - See interview, page 32 {{NEWS }}

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