Manager: Sian Avery-Lofthouse
Store: Waitrose Altrincham
Opened: 2009
Size: 19,600 sq ft
Market share: 3.2%
Population: 166,417
Grocery spend: £13,928,636
Spend by household: £202.20
Competitors: 44
Nearest rivals: Aldi 0.8 miles, Asda 0.5 miles, Co-op 0.8 miles, Iceland 1.4 miles, Lidl 2.8 miles, M&S 1.4 miles, Morrisons 4.5 miles, Sainsbury’s 1.6 miles, Tesco 0.8 miles, Waitrose 7.0 miles
Source: CACI. For more info visit www.caci.co.uk/contact. Notes: Shopper profiling is measured using Grocery Acorn shopper segmentation. Store catchment data (market share, population, expenditure, spend by household, competition) is within a five-mile radius. For CACI’s shopper segmentation of the other stores we visited this week see the online report at www.thegrocer.co.uk/stores/the-grocer-33
Tell us about your retail career so far. I have only ever worked for Waitrose. I first started about 18 years ago and I did leave to go to university, but have been with Waitrose ever since, which is about 15 years. I have done every role across the shop floor and just worked my way up. I started out in a little store in Menai Bridge in North Wales before moving to the Manchester area. I then worked my way through the different assistant team leader roles and then into management. This is actually my first appointment as a branch manager, which I have been doing for 18 months now.
What have been your highlights in your time in charge of the Altrincham branch? I absolutely love working for Waitrose, the business and what it stands for, and I particularly love it here in Altrincham. Obviously Waitrose has been going through a lot of change and it’s been really exciting to be working through that with the team and leading it and seeing the results coming through. It’s a really tight-knit, passionate team and they’ve made me feel really welcome.
What is Altrincham like? It’s a really nice part of the world. We have a really diverse range of customers, which is lovely when we get to experience all the different cultures. It has a real local feel to it, and our partners really know our customers well and have been able to create genuine relationships with them. We know them by name and we see the whole family growing as they use the store.
Our shopper said staff made him feel valued as a customer. That must make you proud. Oh wow, that is really lovely to hear. I’m really excited to share everything around this win with the partners. Customer service is something we pride ourselves on and I’m super passionate about it. Our relationship with our customers is so important to us. It is not about trying to chase a score but instead actually listening to what our customers are saying to us and creating those genuine relationships.
The store provided a full basket. How do you ensure such impressive stock levels? It’s been a really big focus for our business. Its a big part of that customer service piece, it’s not just about how customers interact with partners but it’s also crucial they can get everything that they want. That goes right across the team here and central office. We are working to ensure we have good depth of fill on the shelf whenever customers come in. We are also focused on ensuring our deliveries are coming in at the right time and bringing the right stock. As a branch, we’ve worked really hard to drive availability this year and we have been relentless with our processes.
We’ve come to the end of summer. How have you navigated such changeable weather? It has been a mixed bag of weather this year. Our customers have just responded to whatever comes their way. Even when we get the slightest hint of blue sky we see barbecue lines selling well. Whatever the weather has been, however, all our new summer lines have been selling. We also had a big boost with all of the sporting events and we relaunched our Waitrose No 1 range, which has been doing well. As I look out of the window right now the sun is shining, so fingers crossed we might be in for some more stable weather.
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