Archive of all Spar articles – Page 37
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Mark Keeley Spar
trading controller Spar is focusing on a much tighter range to satisfy consumer demand. We want to avoid falling into the trap of having a range presented by a supplier. We want to identify what consumers want rather than throwing everything...
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GTA confident of replacing lost revenue as Makro goes
Makro is pulling out of Group Trading Alliance, the multi-billion pound buying group it set up with Spar UK and Landmark. The 27-depot cash and carry group will cease to be a member of GTA at the end of the year. In a statement it said: "Following...
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First convenience store bank opens at Edinburgh Botterill's
Spar won the race to open the first bank inside a convenience store when the Bank of Scotland launched a pilot at a Botterill's store in Inverkeithing, Edinburgh, this week. The prototype bank at the relaunched 4,200 sq ft store has a cash deposit...
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Spar's Zimbabwe subsidiary set to grow through alliance
Spar South Africa's Zimbabwean subsidiary is to be expanded following a tie-up with leading Zimbabwean food and leisure group Innscor. Under the deal, Innscor will take control of the Spar distribution centre in the capital Harare and a 65%...
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Spar: Tates set for biggest ever
Spar UK's most powerful member is planning to build its biggest ever store. Tates, the company owned stores division of Spar UK's biggest wholesaler AF Blakemore, is awaiting planing permission for a store in mid Wales of about 6,000 sq ft, and...
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Germany: Spar's online division ditched as radical restructu
Spar's German company has decided to axe its online shopping division Einkauf 24 after the service failed to catch on with consumers. Although the service has been running since 1998, it was still being described by the company earlier this year as...
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Spar Multiple Retail Group: What the multiples can do, we c
Membership of Spar's buying consortium Multiple Retail Group has swelled to almost 700 members one year after its inception, said Spar's trading director Keith Webb. Originally comprising the company owned stores to "replicate the multiple set-up",...
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Rural action: Charles pushes local sourcing
Clive Beddall Chief executives of Sainsbury, the Co-operative Group, Spar and the IGD stood alongside the Prince of Wales at St James's Palace on Tuesday to give a high profile send-off to what could be the biggest ever boost for locally produced...
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Symbol groups: Spar's combined c-store and post office debut
Spar has opened the UK's first combined main post office and convenience store in London this week. Rather than sectioning off the post office behind glass windows, the open plan design at Westminster Bridge Road enables customers to pay for...
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Convenience stores: AW's Hart attacks critics of Spar tv ad
Appleby Westward marketing director John Hart hit out at critics of Spar's new £2m TV advertising campaign at the company's annual trade show at Westpoint, Exeter. Referring to recent letters in The Grocer and a follow-up letter from Londis to Spar...
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Channel Islands Wholesale Group: Sailing for Guernsey
Jersey based Spar wholesaler Channel Islands Wholesale Group is heading to Guernsey this year. Discussions are now underway to set up a distribution facility on the island, said group MD Nigel Robson. "Initially, goods will be shipped over from...
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Great to be back on the box
Sir; I find the letter from J Richardson about Spar's £2m advertising campaign with the heading No need to advertise' (The Grocer, June 16, p19) an astonishing statement. Marketing to our customer must be through a mix of formats. With the recent...
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Germany: Spar seeks radical solutions for the climb back to
The new boss of Spar's loss making German operation has announced a radical restructuring of the business to return the group to profitability by the end of the year. Fritz Ammann said the group will focus on the company owned Eurospar estate, the...
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Trading hours: Middleditch gunning for LibDem's Sunday move
Spar MD Morton Middleditch has vowed to fight proposals to liberalise Sunday trading legislation by LibDem peer Lord Clement-Jones. The former Kingfisher director is asking retailers for cash to fund a campaign to scrap the six-hour Sunday trading...
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Spar yuppies are wasting £2m
Sir; I was utterly appalled when I read in your article dated May 12, that Spar, the symbol group of which I have been a member for 25 years, proposes to engage in a national TV advertising campaign. The reason people come into my store is because...
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Hamburg stores trial EDLP as Spar shakes up its strategy in
Spar's German operation is trialling EDLP in three of its larger stores in Hamburg in a bid to reverse declining sales, said International Spar MD Gordon Campbell. High/low pricing in stores over 8,000 sq ft doesn't work in the German retail...
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Executive moves: Craft moves on from Interbrew
Former Spar UK md Garry Craft has left his job as category development director at Interbrew. Craft left Spar two years ago and later joined the drinks side of Bass, taken over by Interbrew late last year. He said: "When I joined Bass it was on the...
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The Grocer focus on deli and food to go: It's all go at Spar
Spar is fully committed to the food to go concept. "It's highly successful, provided you have the right products, in the right location, at the right time," says trading controller Robert Neal. Spar began with a pilot scheme two years ago in a...
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Adkin becomes operations director for AF Blakemore's Tates
Stuart Adkin is the new operations director of Tates, the company owned stores division of Spar wholesaler AF Blakemore. He replaces Geoff Hallam, who became managing director following the retirement of Colin Ellis. Adkin has been with the…
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Northern Ireland: Spar store numbers fall but sales trend is
The number of Spar stores in Northern Ireland has fallen but group turnover is up, according to Ken McWhinney, deputy md of John Henderson, Spar's wholesaler in the province. Addressing an audience of more than 100 retailers at a conference of...