40 Retail Week February 6, 2015 STORES Budgens' local lab Convenience specialist Budgens has opened a 'lab' •ftw store in Dorset that shows the way as far as display and merchandising is concerned. By ohn Ryan

roadstone is a district in the store and change the external Poole and Poole is just appearance. down the road from Because this is a store that is owned Bournemouth and all of by Budgens, rather than a franchised the preceding are just outpost, the retailer has had a free inside Dorset. hand to do what is felt necessary to Even with this description, people improve things. Bcould be forgiven for struggling to locate It is also an internal selling vehicle. Broadstone on the map. And when they One of the problems about effecting do get there, like so many parts of the change in an organisation that relies Poole/Bournemouth conurbation, it is upon its franchisees is that a large dose quite hard to work out where one sub• of goodwill is required to encourage the urb ends and the next begins. owner/managers of each store to spend Nonetheless, as a place, Broadstone money to alter the appearance of a is noteworthy as the location of a Budg• branch. They are profit-focused and ens 'lab' store-meaning a branch of the spending more money than is absolutely convenience store group in which new necessary is not high on the agenda. ways of doing things are being tested. To an extent therefore, Broadstone is There are good reasons why Budgens about selling to shoppers, but is trying new things. According to also about providing a paragon for accounts filed in late 2014, parent com• franchisees, showing them what is pany Musgrave Retail Partners GB possible. showed pre-tax losses running at £63.4m in 2 013 against £2. 6m the prior year. Saturation point The result probably accounts in some The refit was completed and the shop measure for the arrival of turnaround reopened at the beginning of October specialist Peter Ridler, who took last year, having grown in size from the Budgens and Londis reins in May 6,200 sqftto 6,512 sqft. Store manager last year. Nigel Hughes says that the area has Since then, change has been on the reached "saturation" as far as food menu, as Ridler and his team have tried retail is concerned: "There are two to do something with a convenience 70,000 sq ft Tesco Extras and a 70,000 business that looked to be under pres• sq ft Asda nearby and a 15,000 sq ft sure from a combination of Lidl and Aldi Tesco at the end of the road," he says. on the one side and the convenience for• He also points out that the nearest mats from the big grocers on the other. Lidl has just had a makeover and there The fresh produce offer at basket value has risen from £9 to £11 For shoppers, the Broadstone store is is a Waitrose just a couple of miles away. the front of the store and that the categories which comprise the most tangible evidence that there Worth noting too is that Budgens' imme• [above] and wine section 'fresh' have risen by 65%, like-for-like. are shifting sands at Budgens. The diate neighbour is a Tesco Express that (right) serve as templates retailer has had a company-owned store looks badly in need of refurbishment. for Budgens' franchisees Wood is the word here since 2009, when it acquired the All of which should point to chal• to follow Stand outside the store and the con• location following the disappearance of lenges for any retailer seeking to raise trast between Tesco and Budgens Somerfield. It was not until 2014 how• its game in the area. Yet Hughes says could hardly be greater. The Tesco ever that the decision was taken to refit that post-refurbishment the average shopfront is white with windows that February 6,2015 Retail Week 41

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do not allow the shopper to see in. Bud• gens, by contrast, is wood-clad on the upper portion of its fascia and the win• dows afford views into the cafe that fills the area to the right of the entrance. It is also easy to see beyond this into the store proper, which boasts 'warm' lighting and more wood- trimmed fixtures. Walk through the door and the initial impression is that this is a store with a strong focus on fresh. This element of the offer was at the back of the shop in the old scheme, but the decision to bring it to the front was central to the revised layout. The left-hand perimeter wall is head pendant lights and exposed air home to the greengrocery offer, which Walk through the door conditioning trunking, which give a is fronted by six tiered and wood- down-to-earth and not over-finished clad mid-shop units that bear special and the initial impression sense to this interior. The floor has been offers. They are on wheels and the is that this is a store with changed too, and slate-grey tiles are combination of plain wood and a used throughout. designerly faded dark green paint a strong focus on fresh Beyond the fruit and veg space and give them a market stall feel. still on the left-hand side of the shop, it's It is quite hard not to notice the over- fresh meat and a Cook implant. The 42 Retail Week February 6, 2015

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latter is a concession provided by the eponymous Sittingbourne- BUDGENS,BROADSTONE based prepared meals company Opened October 2014 and Hughes observes that they "are Sire 6,512 sqft very strict about the way they are Ambience Market-like presented". What is interesting is Design In-house and the manner in which the Cook consultancy Relish wood-trimmed freezer and chiller Brand identity In-house and units fit very comfortably with the consultancy SEA rest of the shop. Across the aisle there is fresh meat, much of which is from local text of convenience store norms. suppliers (Budgens managers have On the way out, there is a Costa autonomy to source up to 5% of the coffee machine and on Fridays in-store offer locally). Hughes shoppers can help themselves to points to the venison and other a free coffee when they spend £10 exotics, noting that on "opening or more. day we sold more game than beef, lamb and pork put together". The tricky bit for Budgens Taste of more to come All of this is displayed on chiller This is certainly a good-looking units that have low wooden bas• will be persuading its shop that has a lot more in common kets at their base in which condi• with a Little Waitrose or an M&S ments to accompany meat are franchisees that this is Simply Food than with any of the displayed. It's a simple device, but where the future lies offerings from Sainsbury's or Tesco. it works and the puzzle is why this A second smaller store following is not done more widely. the Broadstone Lab example has So to the wine and spirits area, just opened in Byfleet, Surrey, and a which looks as good as anything flat as far as sales are concerned. adding to the store's market atmos• third is to follow in late April. that the big supermarkets offer. This is perhaps less surprising, phere, but that is about it. The tricky bit for Budgens will be More wood makes this area what given that ambient produce has a There are five cash desks and no persuading its franchisees that this it is and the lighting is subdued. tendency to be the same every• self-scan tills, which is unusual. is where the future lies. Pride of place goes to a £26 bottle of where, no matter how deft the mer• Hughes says this was a very con• For the moment however, Budg• English sparkling wine [méthode chandising. scious decision by Ridler as Budg• ens has a store that is among the champenoise] which comes, natu• A number of the shelves have ens is famous for its service and leaders in appealing convenience rally, from a Dorset vineyard. been given wood trim and the bus he wanted each shopper to be store interiors and on that basis it After that, it's ambient products stop-style product markers have served personally. Maybe so, but it looks to be heading in a more profit• and Hughes admits that this area is about them a recycled appearance, still looks a little curious in the con• able direction. H