Turnover is up from £14,000 to £22,000 a week just one year after Geoff and Teresa Turner took over the 650 sq ft store in Hemmingbrough, near Selby, and invested in a £45,000 refit. The couple are also celebrating after scooping the prize for the ‘Londis Small Store of the Year’ at the recent annual Londis Conference, a competition that some 2,000 stores were entered into.
It’s been quite a journey for Geoff and Teresa who previously ran a Londis store in Bournemouth for 11 years.
The Hemmingbrough store previously operated as a Premier, but as soon as Geoff and Teresa bought the store they partnered with Londis. “We wanted to focus on chilled food and knew that Londis would be able to offer us the support that we needed. The Londis EPoS system was another deciding factor – it’s so user friendly. We couldn’t do without that. I’ve not seen a better system on offer,” says Geoff.
Although the store had only recently been refitted, as soon as the Turners took over they decided that it needed more work and investment. “The layout wasn’t right for my plans for chilled and the refrigeration wasn’t suitable for our needs,” says Geoff.
With the help of the Londis store development team, the store was refitted to the latest Londis brand standards and the Londis Manager EPoS system was installed. Geoff and Teresa wasted no time in signing up to the Londis Brand Essentials scheme too, which enables them to earn greater over-rider discounts by agreeing to adhere to certain disciplines.
The refit project cost around £45,000 and took just 10 days from start to finish.
Refrigeration was extended from 2m to 5m to give a greater focus to chilled and fresh produce.
Geoff was keen to support local suppliers and he can now offer more local produce as well as local cakes, meat, poultry, eggs, pies and pasties.
The store, which services Hemmingbrough and the neighbouring villages (population circa 2,000), has an off licence, lottery service and two till points. Opening hours are 6.30am-9pm seven days a week and there’s ample parking for customers.
Geoff is delighted with the results and says: “The store development team was simply first class. The final result totally exceeded my vision for the store. I couldn’t believe what we’d achieved and how good it looked. And my customers all agree too!”
