Somerfield is launching a premium wine range as part of its most extensive range review in a decade.
The Collection portfolio is a range of 26 wines priced between £7 and £20, which will be displayed on a dedicated four-foot bay within Somerfield’s best performing 130 stores, starting this week.
Extensive research - conducted for the retailer by Outlook Research last October - revealed opportunities for selling premium wines in certain stores.
“It is not necessarily a range of fine wines, but ones that create a point of interest,” said
Somerfield’s wine trading manager, Angela Mount. “It has classics and quirky wines, including some £15 Burgundies. There is a real focus on quality and each wine tells a story.”
Mount said the research triggered wide-scale changes to the store’s wine section.
“The results were quite brutal. It showed customers were desperate for guidance and also that only about 20% of our customers were buying wine with us,” admitted Mount.
As a result, Somerfield is revising its 380 lines.
It implemented the first round of changes in July, representing about 200 of its wines changed. Mount said there had been too much duplication, with an over- emphasis on Old World wines, especially French wines in the £3-£4 bracket, and not enough on the New World.
Results released by ACNielsen Scantrack this week show a like-for-like value increase of 15% for Somerfield wines over the past 12 weeks, compared with 5.3% for the overall wine market, she added.
The retailer is also working on its dual site point-of-sale merchandising to link wine with its meat or cheese sections, and it is relaunching its own label wines.
It also plans to introduce a more classic Fine Wine range to its top 10 or 20 stores at the start of next year.
Sonya Hook
The Collection portfolio is a range of 26 wines priced between £7 and £20, which will be displayed on a dedicated four-foot bay within Somerfield’s best performing 130 stores, starting this week.
Extensive research - conducted for the retailer by Outlook Research last October - revealed opportunities for selling premium wines in certain stores.
“It is not necessarily a range of fine wines, but ones that create a point of interest,” said
Somerfield’s wine trading manager, Angela Mount. “It has classics and quirky wines, including some £15 Burgundies. There is a real focus on quality and each wine tells a story.”
Mount said the research triggered wide-scale changes to the store’s wine section.
“The results were quite brutal. It showed customers were desperate for guidance and also that only about 20% of our customers were buying wine with us,” admitted Mount.
As a result, Somerfield is revising its 380 lines.
It implemented the first round of changes in July, representing about 200 of its wines changed. Mount said there had been too much duplication, with an over- emphasis on Old World wines, especially French wines in the £3-£4 bracket, and not enough on the New World.
Results released by ACNielsen Scantrack this week show a like-for-like value increase of 15% for Somerfield wines over the past 12 weeks, compared with 5.3% for the overall wine market, she added.
The retailer is also working on its dual site point-of-sale merchandising to link wine with its meat or cheese sections, and it is relaunching its own label wines.
It also plans to introduce a more classic Fine Wine range to its top 10 or 20 stores at the start of next year.
Sonya Hook
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