A food tasting day was held at a Cheddar SPAR store where sales figures for a successful food-to-go range continue to show healthy increasesMore...
Ron Irving has been promoted to the new position of Transport Manager at Appleby Westward Ltd., the Saltash-based regional distribution company for SPAR convenience stores in the south west.More...
Simon Harrison and Julie Keenan, who own the SPAR store in Tintagel, have embarked on a sponsorship package for their local football tea.More...
Helen Spilsted, who owns the SPAR forecourt store at Summersdale City Motors in Chichester, has helped raised funds for a local charity after taking part in a London to Brighton vintage car run.More...
Appleby Westward, the regional distribution company for SPAR in the south west, is launching a new campaign to attract independent convenience store owners to join the company.More...
"The Payroll department not only deal with the on-going payroll processing of the Appleby Westward staff," (says Claire Parkin, Appleby Westward's Payroll Co-ordinator) they also work with a large number of our retailers who outsource their payroll to Appleby Westward'.
Retailers Chris and Sue Sharrinton run a highly successful SPAR store in Helston, Cornwall, and started a six day delivery programme two years ago to examine its effectiveness and to assess its advantages.
“To be honest, it is hard to see any disadvantages,”
said Chris, who is also Vice Chairman of the Wessex Guild of SPAR.
“As a Retailer, the biggest advantage for me is that I know I have the ready availability of products every day except one. If a product sells well and goes off sale, I have the reassurance of knowing it will be only a maximum of 24 hours before I get that product again.”
He added that it was not necessary to keep so much stock as before because with six day delivery, retailers could take more risk on the range they stock and have easier throughput.
“You have the comfort of knowing that if Appleby Westward is out of stock, or a supplier lets them down, there is still only 24 hours to wait for the next delivery,”
he said.
“It’s all about stock availability and 24 hour ordering, along with the benefit of having access to other products that Appleby Westward will be able to bring in, particularly from smaller suppliers. For example, a small supplier in Devon may only be able to go to Cornwall one day a week at the moment, but if that supplier was able to sell direct to Appleby Westward, we would all get the benefit. “This opens the opportunity for a bigger product range for the customer and a way for retailers to maximise the shelf life of products and ensure they are always available."
“I can’t see any disadvantages in it and I think retailers are in a win-win situation. Once you get into disciplining the way you do stock rotation and ordering, it works extremely well and should come as second nature. It’s all about continual replenishment, which is what the major multiples do every day.”
Chris and his wife Sue are highly experienced SPAR Retailers who continually focus on improvements in-store, regularly refining their offer to meet customer needs. Former SPAR Retailers of the Year, the couple also won the UK Top Shop of the Year Award in 2007.
Article updated January 2011
