Spar symbol showcases resilience in the face of market challenges
DUNDEE-BASED wholesaler CJ Lang & Son, the firm behind the Spar Scotland symbol, has reported positive trading results despite one of the most challenging trading environments in recent years.
Covering off the year to 27 April 2025, the group’s net turnover increased by £2million to sit at £255million, with earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of £6.8million and operating profits of £2.35million.
Colin McLean, chief executive at CJ Lang, said: “The headwinds of a very poor summer in 2024, a toughening market and significant cost inflation made this a demanding year. In these conditions, sales remained strong, demonstrating the strength of the SPAR brand, but profits have inevitably been squeezed.
“We must continually adapt to changing consumer habits, new legislation, and supply chain unpredictability. Yet, what sets us apart is that we are genuinely Scottish with our own depot, network of vehicles, and a team of colleagues embedded in communities across the country. That gives us agility and control over our own destiny, and we will continue to invest in the areas that make a real difference for our customers and retailers.”
The symbol group has been clear in its ability to adapt to more challenging waters across the course of 2025, highlighted by Spar Scotland’s part in marketing campaigns across the year. This included the Spar UK Frozen Fortunes competition as well as the Spar Scotland ‘Discover Spar’ campaign, which aimed to encourage more independent retailers to join the Spar estate.
Alongside this, the business expanded on its food-to-go offer, strengthening its already-popular breakfast meal deal solution and introduced more local and hyper-local products to their stores to reflect customer demand.
Speaking to Scottish Grocer, McLean said: “We have been investing back into the business and investing more into our marketing across 2025 to really drive the Spar Scotland brand.
“We want to be able to take suppliers, colleagues and customers on a journey through this difficult market, and it has remained challenging since April. Despite this, I do think we are well placed to support our customers, we understand the market and want to drive them forward.
“We will keep supporting all of our customers, we plan to keep running our independent retailer focussed ‘Discover Spar Scotland’ campaign. We’re taking the best of what we have done with the company-owned estate and reshaping this for our independent retailers, helping them on value and the overall package whilst bringing some big names to the estate at the same time.”
To support all of this, CJ Lang has worked to further strengthen its supply chain with a significant investment into its vehicle fleet, warehouse equipment and match demand for its Relex planning and forecasting platform.
And bringing more customers to Spar seems to be one of the keys CJ Lang plans to use to unlock further growth in the coming months.
This includes a focus on more gamification mechanics through its marketing, particularly with the symbol’s upcoming ‘Spin into Spring’ campaign.
McLean said: “It’s modern and it gets to different customers. The ‘Spin into Spring’ campaign has already been received remarkably well, particularly from the supply base, so we are very pleased with that.
“And off the back of our Tradeshow, we got the backing of more suppliers and how we are looking to embrace more modern trends. This has also been seen with the introduction of our new TikTok account, the following on this has been, quite frankly, astounding.”
Whilst the outlook may still remain a question mark for many retailers in the trade, it’s clear that Spar Scotland remains confident that it can deliver and will deliver for many of its customers into 2026.
McLean said: “We can’t control everything coming at us, from regulation to taxation, but we continue to focus on what we can control. We will continue to invest in our people, our systems, and our stores.
“We are proud to be local, agile, and deeply rooted in Scottish communities, but we also have the strength and scale of SPAR UK and SPAR International behind us. That combination gives us confidence for the future.
“We would like to thank all your customers, suppliers and colleagues for their support over the past 12 months. We know how incredibly difficult things are, but by continuing to stay focused on our short and long term plans we are confident we can deliver a compelling offer for all.”
