Sainsbury's London Road, Redhill: Grocer 33 store of the week

I understand you’ve recently opened this branch following a relocation. Yes, the old store has been demolished and we moved next door in August. At the moment we’re only halfway through getting the new store up and running; it will be 60,000 sq ft once we’ve finished next summer.

What has been the most challenging thing about the process? I think it’s been trying to keep the goodwill of the customers, because the car park destruction started in January and it’s now far more challenging to get into the temporary car park. What we tried to give them was as good a shopping experience in this temporary set-up, if not better than before, and we’ve retained everything but the counters. We’ve done a good job of keeping customers in through very good service and fantastic availability.

What new features will you have in the store once it’s finished? In Redhill there aren’t a lot of places to go for great general merchandise. So the fact we will have our own general merchandise section and an Argos to complement it will make the store a real destination. I’ll also be excited to have a café.

In the meantime, how is your Christmas going? We’ve got extra product ranges and Christmas displays and I think we’ve really excelled ourselves this year. The party food lines are just brilliant and they’re flying off the shelves. We’ve also introduced a new Champagne alternative called Crémant de Loire, which is a little bit more expensive than Prosecco but cheaper than Champagne.

What else are you doing to make the store festive? We have a number of colleagues around the store whose sole job is helping customers find the products they don’t buy at other times of the year. We’re also doing something brilliant to surprise and delight our customers, which is giving employees a Nectar voucher each that they can give to a customer of their choice.