Winner: Sainsbury’s Durham
Store manager: Russell Walker
Opened: 1989
Size: 63,000 sq ft
Market share: 26.2%
Nearest rivals: Tesco - 2.8 miles, Morrisons - 3.5 miles, Asda - 7.9 miles
Store data source: Analysis by CACI. Call the market planning group on 020 7602 6000
Congratulations! Why do you think your store won? We focus on colleague and customer engagement. On the colleague side, we hold lots of listening groups to make sure we are a great place to work. On the customer side, we have launched a scheme called ‘Tell Durham’ where we collate any customer feedback, analyse it and use it to make improvements to the store. We launched that six months ago and three months later, Sainsbury’s launched an almost identical scheme called ‘Tell Sainsbury’s’. Four of our departments are also centres of excellence for the whole region.
How do you make sure your store stands out from rivals? Our aim is to always be the best in town. We’ve got an M&S opening 100 yards away in the next four weeks so we’ve been working hard at finding out from our customers what they want from the store and what we can do better.
Does the store have any involvement with the local community? Very much so. In the past 12 months, we have raised more than £130,000 in cash and donated goods for local community groups - that’s £10,000 for every one of our financial periods.
What areas of your store are doing well? Clothing continues to do well, as does produce. We’ve just launched a ‘Great Produce’ initiative to make the department a hero category.
Have you got any exciting events coming up? In a couple of weeks, the store is holding its own Oscars to recognise colleagues. It’s going to be held at a local club, and we’re dressing up in movie-themed costumes.
Sainsbury’s performed well in this week’s Kantar Worldpanel data. Why do you think the company is doing so well? I’ve been at Sainsbury’s for 26 years and I can honestly say it’s because it’s such a good place to work. Two new managers have joined the store and they have both said there is an overwhelming difference to anywhere else they’ve worked.
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