Exclusive Julian Hunt A new brand is being developed in the convenience and CTN sectors by Newshops as part of its ambition to be seen as the "best local retailer". Work on Smile only started in January. But the brand has already appeared at four Newshops sites, following successful trials at the chain's flagship c-store in Street, Somerset. The Street store, built virtually from scratch on a brownfield site, is the model for future development of Newshops' convenience format. It features destination areas such as off licence, Post Office, video, news, food to go and a strong chilled and fresh offer. MD Jerry Marwood explained that Smile formed part of the chain's efforts to update its formats, which have been segmented into convenience, CTN and grab & go. "We are looking to keep our core business while turning it on its head and bringing in new ranges that will boost margin and bring new footfall," said Marwood. He stressed the Smile moniker would only appear as stores were revamped. Newshops owns 71 stores in the south west, of which 30 are classed as convenience, 30 as CTNs and 10 are city centre sites designated as grab and go. The different Smile formats will be differentiated through the use of sub brands such as local, newshop and express. Marwood said Newshops was also going to "dabble" with a supermarket concept, using a 3,000 sq ft store in Cheltenham which could be renamed Smile Value. "There are certain local stores that, because of the demographics, cannot charge convenience pricing and need a value image and high volumes to work. If [the trial] works, it opens up new local shopping options." Newshops, acquired by the Symonds family in 1998, has been growing rapidly and is now turning over £40m. It added 10 stores last year and Marwood said it could hit 100 in the coming 12 months. Marwood said the next big investment for Newshops would be introducing new IT: "We are down to a choice of two systems and in the first quarter of next year will start implemention, starting centrally and then putting EPoS into the stores that don't have it." - Newshops is to trial internet kiosks in five stores. It has also been signed up as a partner by an unnamed online operator looking to launch a service in Bristol similar to that operated by Urbanfetch. {{NEWS }}

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