Sir; I find the letter from J Richardson about Spar's £2m advertising campaign with the heading No need to advertise' (The Grocer, June 16, p19) an astonishing statement. Marketing to our customer must be through a mix of formats. With the recent outstanding success of TV advertising by Spar in Scotland and Ulster, our Retailer Guild Board unanimously agreed on our new national TV and promotion campaign for this year. I suppose I should not be surprised that Londis, spurred on by the scent of two retailers expressing a counter view in your publication, is now sending letters to Spar retailers offering its services. It appears to be open season on Spar ­ usually a sign we are on the right track. While Spar owes much to John Irish who was the instigator of convenience retailing in the UK (and not just for Spar), times have now changed. There are many more very sophisticated operations now operating within the sector, and the major multiples, hence it is imperative we are more innovative in our approach to catching the consumer's attention if we are to remain the leader in what is now a very crowded sector. Those who are uninformed assume decisions are taken by us without authority to do so. Those who write, whether under the cloak of anonymity or openly as Mr Richardson, who incidentally is not known to us, are misinformed. If anything, we are probably guilty of consulting too much. After consulting with our RDCs and Spar retailers, the decision has been taken to utilise some of our marketing monies on TV in 2001/2002 as part of a comprehensive package. We are showing substantial gains from the 1,000 stores so far converted by Spar to Millennium standard. We are confident of the way forward. All those we have consulted are delighted at this year's programme and are excited by the prospect of raising our profile even further by being back on the box. Morton Middleditch Managing director Spar UK {{LETTERS }}

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