Winner: Morrisons Newcastle-under-Lyme
Store manager: Barry Griffiths
Opened: 1996
Size: 28,000 sq
Market share: 13.0%
Rivals: Sainsbury’s 0.5 miles, Tesco 1.2 miles, Asda 1.6 miles
Store data source: Analysis by CACI. Call the market planning group on 020 7602 6000

You are right next to a university. Do you specically target students with tailored promotions or layouts? We do have an intense student population - they come in en masse every day at five! That can make availability a challenge. So we ensure shelves are full with pasta, beans and pulses and we have buffer stock in the back to meet demand. As a team we are really passionate about availability anyway. There is another Morrisons up the road, so there is some friendly rivalry and banter between us.

What do you think about the plan to have 300 new M Stores by the end of 2014? Going from three to 300 is ambitious, we are really going to hit it with a bang!
Morrisons is the last one to tap into the convenience market. It is moving away from a one-size-fits-all approach. We will be looking at the individual demographics
of each store and tailoring the o er to suit. It’s going on the principle that something that might work in Bradford won’t work in Torquay.

You’ve just nished another round of the Morrisons Millionaires promotion. How did it go? We had about seven or eight winners in this store. They won anything from £20 to more than £100. As a promotion it’s a little bit different, it makes a change from just a price cut.

How long have you worked in grocery? I started 25 years ago at Safeway and I have been general store manager for 12 years. The big changes during that time have been the shift in customers’ expectations and how in-store technology has changed.

What about the changes at Morrisons? Morrisons’ core roots in quality and value have stayed the same, but it’s a more exciting time than ever to be working here. Seeing things like the stores of the future, with dry ice rising from the fresh food, and the new M stores, is great. And the development of people has been phenomenal. If you want it and you work hard enough then you will get it. It’s there for the taking, for anyone.

Barry Griffiths was talking to James Halliwell

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