Winner: Asda Leyton Mills
Store manager: Chris Good
Opened: 1992
Size: 65,000 sq ft
Market share: 9.8%
Nearest rivals: Morrisons - 1 mile, Sainsbury’s - 1.1 miles, Tesco - 1.3 miles
Store data source: Analysis by CACI. Call the market planning group on 020 7602 6000

 

Were you cheering on Asda’s Jahmene in The X Factor? I was! He visited us about six weeks ago with Nicole Scherzinger and they did some filming. That was really exciting for everyone. They signed lots of autographs and met lots of colleagues. Jahmene was showing Nicole what he used to do around the store. It created a good buzz.

What is selling well right now? The major focus is Christmas, and the new Extra Special range is flying off the shelves. Our partnership with Leiths has been a real success, we have opened up a lot of space on it. Chosen by you is also fantastic quality and fantastic prices - the quality has improved a lot over the last 18 months.

Are you trialling anything in-store? We launched home shopping two weeks ago after releasing space in our warehouse through reduced stock holding and top stocking. That gave us room to create a home shopping pod with a big fridge and freezer. We took on 50 new colleagues from the local area. Day one we made about 50 deliveries - two weeks later we are making 450.

You have a Tesco on either side of you. Does that put you under pressure, or motivate you to succeed? It’s great motivation. I visit Tesco regularly and they can’t touch us on price or customer service. I see a real price gap between the two of us. Your Christmas Grocer 33, where we finished £16 cheaper, was a really good reflection of that price gap. There is nothing I see there that particularly impresses me. I always look at their availability, their colleagues and their pricing, and I know that we are the best in the area at those three things.

Other than the competition, what are the biggest challenges you face on a daily basis? Our biggest challenge is how busy we are - we work so hard on maintaining availability and good customer service every day. I am very proud of my team and the way we work together. I dedicate this win to my team. This win is for them.

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