Asda Boldon Colliery: Grocer 33 store of the week

This is Asda’s first service win of the current Grocer 33 year. You must be delighted… I’ve worked at Asda 32 years, six years here, and this is the first time I’ve ever been Grocer 33’d – so one out of one isn’t bad. I’m really chuffed for the team. This is a traditionally working-class store run by working-class people. There’s some real grafters here. We’ve got 489 colleagues currently, and they make the store what it is.

How do you describe the store and the area? Boldon is almost the perfect location. It’s an ex-colliery town. If you live anywhere between here and the sea, we are probably the biggest store you’ll go to. You can pretty much get everything under one roof. So, we’re well established, it’s a large store. We were the biggest by cash take in the entire company last week, taking over £2m. We were also number one last Christmas.

Why are sales so strong here in particular? What are people buying? We’ve got a good George clothing department. George as a brand is really strong. I’m biased, obviously, but I don’t think there are any retailers out there that can match that. Asda as a company has had some specialised offers which have helped our sales over the last four or five weeks. It’s been on everything from confectionery, Christmas pouches, Stella, Corn Flakes… They’ve sold out completely, because they’ve been that good.

Store staff “absolutely surpassed themselves”. Why are standards so consistently high here compared with other Asda stores of late? Individuals drive service and it’s very little to do with me. Customer service needs to be urgent, but it needs to surpass expectations wherever possible, it’s about installing that in the team. In terms of processes here specifically, we operate on the basis that everyone has accountability for certain areas of the shop floor, even by aisle. That means a colleague will be responsible for everything within their three to four aisles, from point of sale to cleaning and replenishment. If someone is smashing it, it’s easy to see that and praise. A big thing for me is an ‘empty warehouse’ – if you have that then you have a full shop floor. I don’t want to sound too cocky, but I would put my warehouse up against anyone’s.

There has been a lot of negative headlines about Asda over the past year. Has it been hard maintaining morale in store? We try not to let it affect us in store. Retail is pretty simple, but hard. We’ll put a can of beans on the shelf and sell the can of beans with the best service we can give. Running a business is challenging, but so is running a superstore. We want to be the best store, and we want Asda to be the best company.

What has Allan Leighton’s message been to store managers since his return? Price integrity is at the heart of it – he mentioned it within the opening three paragraphs of his speech to Asda House. Everything he has said so far aligns with my own belief. It’s simple: we want to restore Asda’s DNA by focusing on price, service and availability, and have a bit of fun while we’re doing it. We obviously continue to look for a new CEO, but the best way I can put it is it’s like Kevin Keegan coming back to Newcastle United. I’m absolutely buzzing that he’s back, he’s an absolute retail legend.