Winner: Sainsbury’s Woolton
Store manager: James Burney
Opened: 1982
Size: 22,620 sq ft
Market share: 7.9%
Nearest rivals: Morrisons - 1 mile; Asda - 1.9 miles; Tesco - 4.2 miles
Store data source: Analysis by CACI. Call the market planning group on 020 7602 6000
What’s your view on Justin King’s departure and Mike Coupe’s promotion? Justin has taken us on a tremendous journey and business growth has been beyond all expectations, so he will be missed. But Mike is absolutely suited to the role and ready to take the reins. He has great plans for the business.
And what do you think about the recently announced Netto partnership? It’s great news. The discounters are growing fast and it seems nearly every new development in the north is for an Aldi store. That’s why Netto is very positive - both from a future business perspective and in terms of reacting to the discounters. It also shows Sainsbury’s is listening to what customers need and want.
How do you trade against the discounters? An Aldi opened near us three weeks ago. It has not impacted on our trading yet.
It was an action-packed weekend for sporting events - how was trading in your store? Absolute madness! We saw continued growth in beer and cider and lots more customers were visiting the deli. Our pizza counter was really popular too.
Have you continued with World Cup activity despite England’s exit? Yes. It’s important to remember it’s a World Cup so there’s been a steady interest, especially here because people from Liverpool love their football. We have launched a World Cup pizza on our pizza counter, which has proved very popular.
Has your store chosen its Charity of the Year yet? Yes, we are supporting Marie Curie this year. I did a Jordan desert trek for them a few years ago.
Do you have any changes coming up in your store? We’ve got a project coming up that will see our customer service desk integrated with our kiosk. This will free up space to create a one-stop shop for food-to-go. We are also planning to go bigger on free-from in response to customer feedback. We have also just remodelled beer, wines and spirits and have made much more room for bottled beer.
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