Stuart Jacks, Asda Stowmarket: Grocer 33 store of the week

Your store scored highly on shop floor service - how do you achieve this?

We have fantastic colleagues who are trusted to do the right thing. They treat the store like their own business and are focused on service. The store has just won an Asda award for delivering 97.5% of key result areas for the last quarter. It’s a very close-knit store, very much a family. No one comes here to do a bad job.

What plans do you have for your store this year?

We are looking at expanding our home shopping operation. We offer click & collect but we are looking to have home shopping to reach areas that we are not touching at the moment. We will look at what postcodes we can get into to expand the catchment. That’s where the business growth is going. It’s about being ahead of the game on technology and e-commerce, which is where we are focusing.

How does the store get involved with the local community?

Jill Roberts, our community colleague, goes to the local hospital, raises money and the colleagues do various things for children, visiting all the schools in the area and working with them. Jill has engaged with every charity in the area. The whole store gets involved in anything we decide to get behind. We always get a fantastic response from the great ­public in Stowmarket.

What do you think will be your big sellers this summer?

We’ve got a fantastic new George Home range, George clothing, all the kids’ summer shop and we’ve got back to school on the horizon. We’ve got camping and leisure coming on board and lots of products sourced from our parent company Walmart.

What can we expect from Asda over the next few months?

Events are planned to celebrate Asda’s 50th year this summer. We are going through a culture change in the business and have drawn a line in the sand. We are looking at what we were really proud of in the past 50 years within the business.