Making plans for a successful 2019
Chris Cobb, Cults Stores, Aberdeen
• Key category of 2018?
We are actually quite weird, tobacco has been a good seller this year, which seems not to go with the current trend. Obviously soft drinks has done well over the summer, and ice cream because of the nice weather.
• This year’s popular SKUs?
The bigger sizes of sugar-free Red Bull. Rather than the smaller 250ml, we took in the two larger sizes of Red Bull sugar-free — they’ve done really well. Same with Red Bull Tropical.
• NPD stars of the year?
We are a smaller shop, so with confectionery and things like that, the new products they sell well for the first four weeks and then it starts to die down.
• Must stocks for 2019?
We are currently looking at food to go, I think next year that will maybe be our goal- to maybe get that up and running, and new products to come in with that.
Saleem Sadiq, Spar Renfrew
• Key category of 2018?
I think the biggest area for us has been food to go, that’s done well. We are still working on it, still trying to improve it that bit more, but it is one category that has certainly grown.
Water and soft drinks is obviously growing, the sugar tax had an impact but people seem to have shifted more and more to the sugar-free stuff. Because we are a convenience store, the usual categories of soft drinks, confectionery have done well.
With cigarettes, there was obviously an affect with going dark and the plain packaging, but it hasn’t been a disaster like some people predicted.
• This year’s popular SKUs?
The Kit Kat Caramel flavour has done exceptionally well, compared to the normal Kit Kat.
• NPD stars of the year?
I think people tend to stick with their old favourites, when new lines come out people do give them a try but they tend to go back to the products that they know the most.
• Must stocks for 2019?
Our focus has really been on the growth of food to go, so we keep our new products within in the store to entice customers in. I’m sure the manufacturers will be sitting in the background trying to think about what to do for next year, to help us build our business.
• Do you have any changes planned for 2019?
We are always changing our store to move things about a bit, and make it more exciting for people to shop in.
Dan Brown, Nisa Pinkie Farm, Musselburgh
• Key category of 2018?
American confectionery for us has been good, we introduced it this year and have seen really good results from that.
Then on a separate point, we are a Nisa store so we have started getting Co-op products introduced — again that has been really well received with customers.
• This year’s popular SKUs?
Bread, during the snow at the start of the year, we brought in 1000 loaves of bread and sold them over a weekend. The other one was, as part of the American range, we got Harry Potter Butterbeer and we sold quite a lot of that.
• NPD stars of the year?
We have been doing a lot of our own product development, and trying to do a lot with food to go, so I think that is where we are looking for a lot of growth.
• Must stocks for 2019?From our own store’s perspective, I think that the two areas we are looking at is the Co-op ranges that are being introduced, as well as some of our own food to go products that we are trying to develop.
• Do you have any changes planned for 2019?
We are potentially looking at a refit to potentially introduce a lot more food to go, we have a base concept in place but we are looking to really start expanding that and make that the main feature of our store.
