SPAR Scotland is celebrating success with 14 new stores joining during the second half of 2020.
The leading convenience store group is celebrating particular success in the North of the country with four new sites joining.
One of the stores to join is run by independent retailers Pamela and Stephen McKay in Portgordon. This 1,400sqft village store, which opened in November, has had great response from the local community. The McKay’s own another SPAR store nine miles away in Portknockie along the stunning Morayshire coast which opened two years ago. Since re-opening the Portgordon SPAR store with a range of services, the McKay’s said: “We are delighted to have opened in Portgordon. The excellent service and support we have received from the sales and development teams at SPAR Scotland has been fantastic. We are so pleased to be able to support the local community of Portgordon with a great convenience offer.”
The husband and wife team of SOS Enterprises took over the Smiddyhill Road SPAR store in Fraserburgh in August last year and have also been impressed with the development and help of the merchandising and sales team at SPAR Scotland. “Customer feedback has been very positive and they are pleased to see the SPAR brand and offers in the store,” said the team.
“We now have a Costa Express and a new Rizza Ice Cream serve-over counter and with seven meters of chilled products and ranges from local bakeries and butchers, customers are able to enjoy a great food-to-go offer, picking up fresh sandwiches, baguettes and salads which are all prepared on-site. We wouldn’t be able to offer our customers this if we didn’t have the guarantee of three deliveries a week and the support of the development, merchandising and sales team at CJ Lang,” they added.
A number of new forecourt sites have also joined the group. Owned by Shyam Karthikeyan, the famous North Coast 500 route based Esso Blackpark Filling Station in Inverness and the Ord Filling Station at Muir of Ord 14 miles north of Inverness have moved across to SPAR.
Blackpark PFS is a 1,000sqft licensed forecourt with a food-to-go area that offers hot food, freshly prepared sandwiches, baguettes and salads. Other products include Costa Express, whippy ice-cream, the national lottery, car wash and Calor gas services. In addition to this the conversion to SPAR has seen the introduction of F’real and Blue Ice Slush machine. A new chiller has also been installed extending the in-store chilled foods range.
Karthikeyan said: “SPAR offer an excellent service and provide a quality SPAR own label range. The team work closely together to maintain high standards throughout the process and we have been so impressed with their overall service since joining in October. I wanted to join SPAR because I wanted peace of mind. As an independent retailer based in Inverness, to know I will receive three deliveries a week, on time and complete is a huge benefit."
Karthikeyan owns another Esso PFS site at Muir of Ord. It’s a 1,800sqft licensed forecourt offering Hot food, freshly prepared sandwiches and fresh coffee specially roasted for Ord Filling Station from Inverness Coffee Roasting Company. There is a Post Office on site, Whippy Ice Cream, Lottery, Car Wash and Calor Gas deliveries.
The store stocks an excellent range of malts, gins and local craft beers from the Cromarty & Black Isle Brewing Companies. There is also a good range of local products from Harry Gow’s, Deas Bakery and the Black Isle Dairy.
Conversion to SPAR included the installation of F’real and a Blue Ice Slush Machine. A new chiller was installed extending the chilled foods range to five meters. The store manager, Kelly Mackenzie said: “I am delighted we are with SPAR. The service from this family business is excellent. The staff across all departments are very friendly and helpful.”
Mike Leonard, Sales Director for SPAR Scotland, said: “We are looking at progressive independent retailers everywhere from Aberdeenshire and Inverness-shire upwards as well as all other areas of Scotland. We know that we are delivering excellent service to independent retailers looking to join SPAR with a great in-store offer, co-investment opportunities, one-to-one regional business development manager support, a quality own label range and store development opportunities. With our depot based in Dundee, we can offer as many as three multi-temp deliveries a week to this part of the country. The north of Scotland will continue to be a huge focus for SPAR Scotland in 2021.”
If you’d like to learn more about becoming a SPAR retailer then please call us on 01382 512000 or find out more here.
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