Best Soft Drinks Retailer of the Year winner – Spar Kincorth
Winner details
Interview with Malcolm Watson, store manager at Spar Kincorth
Staff: 17 staff members
Symbol: Spar
Services: Lottery, PayPoint, Calippo Slush, F’real, Costa Coffee, CJ’s Food to Go
• Watson was first brought on to the Spar Kincorth store nearly two years ago in an effort to revitalise the shop and drive up profits.
• Since joining Spar Kincorth, Watson has managed to improve turnover to sit in the top three highest-ranked Spar Scotland stores in terms of profit.
• The store stocks around 156 SKUs across its soft drinks offering, with the number rising over that depending on limited-edition lines as well as ongoing Spar promotions.
• In addition to this, the store’s chilled selection sits inside energy-efficient refrigeration units in an attractive and colourful array of options that local consumers can choose from.
• The store also runs an annual Easter competition that local children submit art into to win chocolate.
Bubbling up profits with soft drinks
SOFT drinks are an important category for every convenience store across Scotland.
The consumer demand is always present and ever-rising, and the retailers that capitalise on this stand to benefit the most.
This has been the case for the team at Spar Kincorth, who have improved their soft drinks selection massively over the last year to ensure their local customers are well catered to.
This, along with the determination of the staff members, impressed Scottish Grocer judges when they visited the Aberdeen store last summer and went on to choose Spar Kincorth as the winner for the Best Soft Drinks Retailer of the Year Award at the Scottish Grocer Awards 2022.
Aiming to drive up the soft drinks sales, Malcolm Watson, store manager at Spar Kincorth, noticed previous space in his shop that was not performing as strongly as it could be.
This prompted Watson to introduce two new chillers to the store’s soft drinks selection to maximise potential from the area in addition to what was already there, as well as plenty of promotional bins and larger formats across the store.
He explained: “We noticed that there was an area in the store that was well under a lot of footage and pressure for the sales that it was doing and vice versa, the area that I gained space from was causing a lot of waste and didn’t have the same number of people buying from it.
“I wanted to make the most of this area where I could and bring more of a boost here – and after noticing the potential we had here for soft drinks sales.
“Before we introduced the new chiller, I would say we had a more concentrated range initially and I knew there were plenty more options that I could get from the depot to bring into the store.
“I wanted to tap into an expansive range here that would help to increase sales further.”
It is evident that this has been a major success for the shop as Watson reported that sales from soft drinks were up by 22.7% since last year, helping to contribute to the store overall sales, which increased by 18.4% during the same time period.
And the store has been keeping up with trends in soft drinks by catering to demands from across the board – capitalising on demand for functional and energy drinks as well as the rise in low and no-sugar options by ensuring there is plenty from both to choose from.
Watson said: “When it comes to energy drinks, we will stick to the company’s steer, we will restrict lines where we need to, like with the higher-caffeine energy drinks like Monster, Red Bull and the others that need to be restricted to over-16s.
“Even with this, though, energy drinks are still incredibly popular in the store. So we make sure we can get in as wide a range as possible and stay up to date with the latest launches, such as the Lewis Hamilton one as well as the new Monster Aussie Lemonade. So the range just gets more diverse as they come.
“As for low and no-sugar options, when they’re on promotion, I’ll push them but it’s also just down to customer demand. Ultimately, a customer will decide if they want the lower sugar options or the full sugar ones, so it’s knowing how best to work with that.”
The store has been keeping up to date with online trends, too, by stocking up on Prime energy drinks – keeping in between 30 and 60 cases of the hugely popular drink every week.
It’s clear that Watson’s influence has more than paid off, as he was first brought in to join the Spar Kincorth team nearly two years ago in a bid to help revitalise the store and drive up profits.
Watson said: “I’ll have been here for two years by this June and what I wanted to do first was try to bring in some quick wins with the team. When I first started, the store felt congested with products sitting everywhere.
“So I wanted to open up the store a bit more by cutting that back and make it a lot easier for customers to get around and make sure everything has a label and promoted properly.
“But it wasn’t just with the physical store I wanted to help out, it was about working with the team, too. Morale felt quite low when I first came on and learned that there was some animosity with the previous management.
“So after this, I got them in to have a quick chat with them, get to know them a bit more and learn more about how I could help them in the store.
“They didn’t have things like a microwave or a fridge they could use, so I brought those in and I also make sure they get their work schedules for the next three weeks to ensure there aren’t any conflicts with things like holidays or doctor’s appointments, as well as bring in that work/life balance.”
Watson is still keen to make sure the store remains the best it possibly can be and looks ahead to ensure this continues to be the case.
He said: “Before coming here, the store was making a loss for the company and now we sit consistently as the third most profitable store for Spar Scotland.
“It’s been a really good recognition of the team’s efforts here that we have kept that consistency.
“We’re now hoping to bring in a refit for the store in the future, which means we will have further potential to drive up sales further and push past that third spot, too.”
