Winner: Asda Swanley
Store manager: Tim Leach
Opened: 1980
Size: 55,000 sq ft
Market share: 27.6%
Nearest rivals: Tesco - 2.5 miles, Morrisons - 3.6 miles, Sainsbury’s - 3.7 miles
Store data source: Analysis by CACI. Call the market planning group on 020 7602 6000

How was your store affected by the snow? It was a challenge for customers and colleagues to get to the store, but I have had pretty much 100% attendance. There was a real determination from my colleagues to come in.

How about home deliveries? We have the biggest Asda home shopping operation in London, which we delivered with the minimum of disruption. We also do click and collect, including a drive-through. It’s a fantastic concept that’s growing week-on-week. The option to just pull up, open the boot, then drive away is proving really popular. In November we did a soft launch and it’s grown from about 20 orders a week then to about 90 now.

How about deliveries to the store? The distribution network has been fantastic. The ice and the state of the roads after the snow has fallen is almost worse. But the distribution network has battled really well, and customers would not have noticed any difference. There were some amendments to the delivery schedules, but the service we received from the distribution centres has been first-class. We had excellent communication and all deliveries have arrived.

Another big story last week was horse burgers - did you have to clear the shelves? I think Asda came out of it pretty lightly. Some of our competitors were highlighted quite dramatically, but we weren’t in that pool, fortunately. We had one or two frozen lines that we had a look at, but there was minimal disruption. We weren’t stripping our shelves of meat!

Do any of your nearby rivals impress you? As GSMs we like to get into rival stores to check their messages and price points. Comparison is always good. Tesco has had a lot of investment recently in stores and service, but it’s not turned any of our customers.

What is the most difficult thing about your job?I’m not sure there is one! I love my job, I’m at the centre of the community, we have 600 colleagues and 55,000 customers every week. It’s a 24-hour operation so we have to deliver the same level of service at 3am as we do at 3pm. And I thoroughly enjoy it.

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