Store: Morrisons Denton
Store manager: Helen Stott
Opened: 2004
Size: 40,138 sq ft
Market share: 6.4%
Population: 655,961
Grocery spend: £15,665,275
Spend by household: £58
Competitors: 94
Nearest rivals: Aldi 1.1 miles, Asda 1.3 miles, Co-op 0.9 miles, Iceland 1.2 miles, Lidl 0.2 miles, M&S 2.0 miles, Morrisons 1.7 miles, Sainsbury’s 0.8 miles, Tesco 0.9 miles, Waitrose 6.3 miles
Source: CACI. For more info visit www.caci.co.uk/contact. Notes: Shopper profiling is measured using Grocery Acorn shopper segmentation. Store catchment data (market share, population, expenditure, spend by household, competition) is within a five-mile radius.
Can you tell us about your career with Morrisons? I’ve worked for Morrisons for 22 years but I’ve only been a store manager for three-and-a-half. I went through what we call the ‘pathways programme’, an in-house programme that promotes individuals in the store. This is my third branch as store manager, and I’ve been in Denton for just over three months now. We’ve got a new team here, myself and a couple of new managers co-existing with the current management, and also a few new members.
The store will be going through what we call a ‘fresh look’ in the coming months where we refresh everything in the shop – we’ll redo the Market Street, where we’ll modernise everything and change the layout based on customer feedback. I was brought in to do that, which is great, it’s an opportunity for me to have that next step in my career.
What have been your key priorities since you moved? My priorities have been around routines and keeping everything simple. We’ve introduced some roles within the management team and the colleagues, looking at the store through the eyes of the customer and making sure it’s an enjoyable journey for them.
One of my passions as a manager is about developing the team, coaching the colleagues and managers towards great customer service. But also bringing some theatre into the store. For instance as soon as you walk in, we introduce the single stem and Father’s Day displays with some balloons.
What’s the secret to excellent availability? We always walk every section of the shop every morning and look at what the availability issues are and what we can do to improve them.
How was Jubilee trading? Trade flowed really well over Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Everyone seemed to come in and do their shopping and there were an unprecedented amount of customer orders . As a store we put on extra, so we had fixtures full of sandwich platters and cakes, we had Jubilee bunting up, we had balloons, and everyone was really engaged. It was a tough week, but a great week.
What changes have you made to the store post-Jubilee weekend? We transitioned well from Jubilee weekend into Father’s Day. We changed the place over from the Sunday into Monday. We have a community champion within Morrisons, and for us that role is a colleague in store who will help us engage with the community on things like the Jubilee and Father’s Day, and they’ll help us set up the displays in stores. That really supports my work.
The majority of your local demographic is very price sensitive. How do you support them? Yes, it is. One of my first challenges when I came into the store was to look at how we could run improved availability, while making sure we made the right decisions for our price-sensitive customers. Morrisons launched a Compare & Save campaign, so we make a great effort in store to display those lines. We’ve also showcased Morrison Savers lines, and we’ve predominantly set them up in real eye-catching locations. As you enter the store, you’ll see we tend to push lines that are a pound or under, just to support those cheaper deals for our local customers.
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