Winner: Tesco Extra, Gorton, Manchester
Store manager: Chris Stewart
Opened: October 2008
Size: 63,000 sq ft
Market share: 7%
Nearest rivals: Morrisons - 2.7 miles, Sainsbury’s - 3.6 miles, Asda - 3.8 miles
Store data source: Analysis by CACI. Call the market planning group on 020 7602 6000

How does it feel to win? Great. I’ve managed a lot of stores in my years with Tesco, and worked at this branch for nine months and it’s the first one where my store has featured in The Grocer. It’s brilliant news.

Any other reasons why this win is so special? The store has had operational challenges. We’re in a residential area so no overnight deliveries - our replenishment is solely early in the morning. For a store this size we do a pretty good job in terms of availability and it’s good to be recognised.

How are customers reacting to more personalised offers through Clubcard? Feedback has been fantastic. We’re now sending coupons to people for items they bought last week. For every one loyal customer we keep, that’s the equivalent of 12 new customers in terms of the cash value they spend over their lifetime.

Talking of customers, a grandmother was recently banned from a Tesco store for attacking customers with her trolley. Have you ever had any barmy nanny incidents? An elderly lady once came in with a vacuum cleaner on top of her trolley. She was adamant it had a missing part but the extension section was just inside one of the tubes. She’d walked all the way to the store with it.

How is click & collect faring? Sales this Christmas were about 15% higher, in terms of collections. Like-for-like sales in our dotcom business also grew over the past six months - we’ve been given an extra van so we now have five instead of four.

How did you deal with the horse burger fallout? We were quick to react and remove all stock. The Tesco corporate apology is on posters in-store and the car park. Frozen food sales haven’t dipped.

Has your store benefited from the £1bn revamp? Yes. Since the new financial year we’ve taken on 20 more staff spread across fruit & veg, poultry and meat counters.

 

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