Helen Gregory Sainsbury lost some of its traditional customers from the new-style mixed mission' stores after they were alienated by the focus on convenience and chilled food. Chief executive Sir Peter Davis admitted that although these Central stores, such as Crawley, had huge potential and had been successful in the fresh area, they had cut back too much on grocery. This meant they lost some of the traditional customers, while picking up more lunchtime shoppers. As a result, the next two in London's Muswell Hill and Southport will have more grocery lines. Sir Peter said: "We will be rolling out a revised format to many more stores if these two are successful." The chain is also hedging its bets over the tie-up with Boots. The trial in nine stores, which sell Boots products in a separate area, is running in tandem with a beefed up health and beauty department in a number of other stores, such as Harrogate. Sir Peter said: "We want to see how strongly we can do it ourselves and will judge both before making a decision." At the agm, Sainsbury announced its store reinvigoration programme had seen a 10% sales uplift in refurbished stores and a 30% hike in those with store extensions; 70 more will be targeted in the next year. Sir Peter said the largest stores had huge potential and that the trial store in Monks Cross, which had 16,000 new lines, had seen "very encouraging" sales. "We've had the most positive response from customers than we've seen in any store variation." However Sir Peter added: "We're not concentrating on one [format] at the expense of another." The new Nectar loyalty card ­ run with Barlaycard, Debenhams and BP ­ is set for launch in the autumn. Sir Peter revealed the decision to give up the Air Miles contract on its current loyalty card had shaved off 1% from the like-for-like figure. Sales adjusted for new store openings and including petrol grew 2.7% during the three months to 22 June compared with the same period last year. But Sir Peter said: "We did this for good reason ­ shoppers will be able to collect points more quickly." Sir Peter wouldn't be drawn on how much more profitable Nectar could prove though. "We think it will do a better job than the other card otherwise we wouldn't have changed it." {{NEWS }}

Topics