Claire Hu
Morrisons claims the merging of its wine aisles with Safeway’s has been a hit with customers - despite culling more than a third of the range.
Beers, Wines and Spirits director John Spurs told The Grocer that he found the Safeway portfolio in an “unrealistic” state after takeover, with too many ambitiously-priced products and unsold stock of nearly 400,000 bottles.
“We were a bit surprised at what we found,” he said.
“During the past few months, as we have been looking at aligning the two ranges, the focus has been on looking at what customers want rather than what we as wine buyers want them to have.” The result
has been a reduction in the former Safeway range of 850-900 lines to 560, with a focus on the £3-£5 price bracket, although Spurs stressed there were wines up to £150.
Taking Aussie reds as an example, he said wines over £9 had made up 31% of Safeway’s listing but did only 1% of sales. Morrisons has reduced the number over £9 from 25 to seven and increased the proportion of wines in lower priced brackets. “It’s less choice in terms of numbers but not in terms of what customers want,” said Spurs.
“Safeway relied on a huge range, without too much emphasis on whether it sold. We’ve taken a balanced view and offered a good choice of product lines that will bring in other wines at a higher level.”
The New World has overtaken the Old World within Morrisons in the past few months, although buying manager Stuart Purdie stressed he was open to any good opportunities.
Morrisons claims to have introduced clearer shelf presentation, with wines classed according to country and colour with accompanying tasting notes. Another change has been to widen promotions across all price bands rather than just the “fliers”, in order to encourage Morrisons shoppers to trade up.
Spurs said the buying team, which doesn’t include any of the Safeway wine staff, were being put back on the shop floor so they could get a better idea of the retail environment and the consequences of bad decisions.
He said that Morrisons was in a good position to offer customers some of the best deals around this Christmas and stock availability would not be a problem.
The two supply chains are still operating as independent systems, with plans to merge them in line with the rest of the business.
Morrisons claims the merging of its wine aisles with Safeway’s has been a hit with customers - despite culling more than a third of the range.
Beers, Wines and Spirits director John Spurs told The Grocer that he found the Safeway portfolio in an “unrealistic” state after takeover, with too many ambitiously-priced products and unsold stock of nearly 400,000 bottles.
“We were a bit surprised at what we found,” he said.
“During the past few months, as we have been looking at aligning the two ranges, the focus has been on looking at what customers want rather than what we as wine buyers want them to have.” The result
has been a reduction in the former Safeway range of 850-900 lines to 560, with a focus on the £3-£5 price bracket, although Spurs stressed there were wines up to £150.
Taking Aussie reds as an example, he said wines over £9 had made up 31% of Safeway’s listing but did only 1% of sales. Morrisons has reduced the number over £9 from 25 to seven and increased the proportion of wines in lower priced brackets. “It’s less choice in terms of numbers but not in terms of what customers want,” said Spurs.
“Safeway relied on a huge range, without too much emphasis on whether it sold. We’ve taken a balanced view and offered a good choice of product lines that will bring in other wines at a higher level.”
The New World has overtaken the Old World within Morrisons in the past few months, although buying manager Stuart Purdie stressed he was open to any good opportunities.
Morrisons claims to have introduced clearer shelf presentation, with wines classed according to country and colour with accompanying tasting notes. Another change has been to widen promotions across all price bands rather than just the “fliers”, in order to encourage Morrisons shoppers to trade up.
Spurs said the buying team, which doesn’t include any of the Safeway wine staff, were being put back on the shop floor so they could get a better idea of the retail environment and the consequences of bad decisions.
He said that Morrisons was in a good position to offer customers some of the best deals around this Christmas and stock availability would not be a problem.
The two supply chains are still operating as independent systems, with plans to merge them in line with the rest of the business.
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