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New name for remote ordering service, as Kwik Save performance deteriorates Somerfield aims to be home shopping's No1 Somerfield has unveiled an ambitious plan to control up to 25% of the home shopping market within five years by building a business generating sales of up to £3bn. Chief executive David Simons has warned he does not expect the business to make a profit for three years. But he is pressing ahead with major investment plans that include building a home shopping depot in south west Bristol and a second warehouse in London. More will be built around the country to support Somerfield's new shopping channel on digital tv which goes live in September. By then it will be offering a national service which will be rebranded Somerfield 24­7. As well as the new moniker there will be a new slogan: It's about time'. Simons said: "Within a year that will be a name on everybody's lips." But he warned that the performance of the company's Kwik Save business had been "disappointing" with a fall in like for like sales of 5.7% in the year to April 24. That performance deteriorated further in May and June, when like for likes fell 11.1%. Simons said Somerfield was working hard on improving availability, store environments and Kwik Save's value proposition ­ the results of which should kick in from September. And he pointed out sales in Somerfield stores continued to outperform the industry average with growth of 2.7%. But Simons said there had been problems retaining price sensitive shoppers in a few of the 60 Kwik Save stores converted to the Somerfield fascia and format. Work is under way to resolve ranging and pricing issues in these stores. This hiccup meant the average sales uplift was just 6% in converted stores. But in most it was nearer 18% and Simons expects to see a similar result in the next 100 due for conversion. Somerfield's pretax profit was up 27% to £218.4m on sales of £5.9bn (1998: £6bn). {{NEWS }}