Tim Cobley, manager of the St Neots branch of Waitrose, recently cycled to one of his store's local suppliers to taste the product before it went on shelf. He even helped the owner develop new recipes, although Cobley admits the producer didn't use any of the ones he suggested. It's not a typical role for a branch manager.

But then St Neots is not your typical Waitrose.

It is the first branch to be refurbished in the retailer's Market Town format, which places greater emphasis on local food and is designed to complement the local community.

Branches in Buckingham and Brackley will follow suit in the next couple of months and, if they meet with customer approval, Waitrose will roll the format out across other stores throughout the UK.

The new-look St Neots branch stocks 100 local lines, 200% more than previously. Many of these are merchandised together at the front of store, in addition to being sited in their respective aisles with shelf barkers to flag them up to shoppers.

Near the store entrance is a map of the local area that features supplier names and locations. Those on it currently include flour and bread mix company Glebe Farm, apple juice producer Watergull Orchards, Farrington Oils and Edible Ornaments, a company that farms chillies just three miles down the road.

Unlike Waitrose's standard business model, where head office is the only point of contact for suppliers, staff at St Neots also liaise directly with local suppliers - hence Cobley's cycle ride. Although the decision on which local products to stock is still taken centrally, Cobley says it's his team that manages the day-to-day relationships with local suppliers.

"We are a point of contact with suppliers - we know what our customers want and feed this back to them," he says.

The store is the first to have implemented Waitrose's new Community Matters scheme, under which customers receive a token at the checkout to place in one of three boxes supporting local causes. Each month the branch shares £1,000 among the three local charities - the more

tokens a cause gets, the bigger the

donation it receives.

The store has also become a test bed for some of Waitrose's more radical initiatives.

Following research that found people would be more willing to buy frozen products if they were situated near their chilled equivalent, the conventional dedicated frozen aisle has been ditched and replaced with freezers dotted around the store. Frozen fruit and veg are sited next to the main fruit and veg fixture at the front of the store, frozen fish next to the fish counter and frozen puddings opposite their chilled rivals.

Other additions to the store make it easier to replenish.

Wrapped bread is merchandised in plastic trays and high-selling lines such as bottled water are stocked in trolleys similar to those that hold milk, which allows them to be replaced quickly.

St Neots also features some of the concepts trialled in the Waitrose store in Marylebone, London, including an open cheese counter that lets customers get closer to the products and an improved beer and wine department.

Consumer feedback has been positive - and this has been reflected in strong sales, says Cobley, pointing to the 25% increase in sales in the first week after the store re-opened. There are also signs that once the hype dies down, footfall will remain higher than pre-refit levels, he says.

"The store is 21 years old and a lot of our customers appreciate that it has been refreshed," says Cobley. "They have said they like the large number of local lines and the greater space we've given fresh foods. They are also surprised about how nice it looks and have said they will come back again rather than go elsewhere in the future."

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