Morrisons Shrewsbury: Grocer 33 store of the week

We picked up a full shopping list at your store. What is your secret? We are obsessive about gaps and we are taking part in a new trial that is all about driving down the number of gaps. This involves a really targeted scan every lunchtime and making sure that when the delivery comes in we can get through to the shelf as quickly as we can.

Does this work in conjunction with M ordering? Yes, we were one of the first stores to get M ordering and it has been great for us. Our gaps are down 20% on average and our like-for-likes are definitely up as a result.

This is your third Grocer 33 win for this store. How do you maintain strong customer service? We have a really great team here. We were one of only 15 stores across the country last year that received the full staff bonus, which is partly judged on customer service. I like to try to spend lots of time on the shop floor, and when new staff join they get an induction from me and the HR manager where we look to get them fully engaged.

What’s new in your store? I’m very excited about a lot of the innovations that are coming through, such as the foot-long sausage roll we introduced last week. It helped drum up a lot of publicity for us. We sold about 1,200 last week.

Morrisons took a stand against fake farm brands last week. Do customers appreciate this? Absolutely. Shoppers are becoming more concerned about the provenance of their food. Where we are there is a great connection between our customers and local farmers. Last week we had some farmers come in to the store and it was a great hit with customers, particularly the one who brought two sheep along.

Since your last win in 2014, what has the new management team brought to the business? The leadership is really clear in terms of expectations and standards, delivering projects on time and in full. But mostly you can feel the love for Morrisons coming back from customers.