In an effort to halt the ever-growing market share of the German discounters in the UK’s FMCG sector, as well as to attract consumers back to non-online shopping, Sainsbury’s is to revamp six of its hypermarkets with an entirely new store layout, telegraph.co.uk reports.
Its CEO Mike Coupe, who has just marked his first anniversary at the company’s helm, says the renovations are intended to cater for shoppers of the “next generation”. He believes that Sainsbury’s can increase its market share through attracting shoppers who give their custom to other grocers’ online services.
The details of the new supermarket floor plan have not yet been divulged to the media, though it has been made known that one important change will be to grant fresh produce a more prominent position in stores by moving fruit and vegetables closer to the front of outlets.
In an interview, Coupe said, “If you characterise last year as building a plan and making sure we had the financial capacity to execute the plan, this year for us is all about experimentation and starting to understand how we can make our larger stores in particular different for the future.
“My measure of long-term success would be how and when we change the dynamic of our superstore business. We are certainly looking to push the boundaries of what we might do with those formats in the future.”
He added, “The challenge is to make the superstore more attractive in the first place, and then secondly easier to get around and get out of then previously.”
© 2015 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Peter Donnelly.
