Alex Glyn

JACKPOT! Huge news for Snappy, Lottery, Independent retailers and shoppers! Allwyn UK partners with Snappy Shopper to give independent National Lottery retailers the ability to sell scratchcards online and app in a Q-commerce first. With this completely new way to sell Scratchcards, independent stores can boost their National Lottery sales and associated commission – with customers able to conveniently add Scratchcards to their wider online shop on the Snappy Shopper platform and receive them directly to their door from their chosen local retailer. Natalie Lightfoot of Londis Solo Convenience, Baillieston, Glasgow, which was one of the trial stores, said: “Since introducing Scratchcards through Snappy Shopper, we’ve received a positive response from our customers, providing them with an additional reason to place orders. Notably, three of our Scratchcards have ranked among the top 100 products sold through Snappy Shopper in the past three weeks, indicating that our customers appreciate the freedom of choice and convenience of purchasing online. With all procedures correctly implemented, I am delighted to be replicating our in-store safe play experience directly to our customers doors. Who knows, we might have a big winner soon!” Allwyn’s Director of Retail, Alex Green, said: “We’re delighted that independent National Lottery retailers now have the ability to sell Scratchcards online through the Snappy Shopper platform. We know that this is something our independent retail partners have been asking for – as it offers their customers even greater convenience and provides another way for them to increase their National Lottery sales. “We’ve been working hard behind the scenes to get this service right for both retailers and National Lottery players, to ensure our robust in-store player protection standards are maintained throughout the online ordering and home delivery process. We’re really pleased with the results of the trial, which have shown us that Snappy Shopper is exactly the right kind of partner to help our independent retail partners sell National Lottery Scratchcards safely online.” Absolutely delighted we can bring this to our indie retailer community to boost sales whilst offering our customers the safest online experience. I can't wait to hopefully create a Snappy millionaire! 🤞 Read all about it https://lnkd.in/ekuE-aed #Lottery #Allwyn #SnappyShopper #Partnership #Delivery #Qcommerce

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🚀 EXPANSION 🚀 Delighted to share Snappy Shopper and One Stop Stores Ltd are taking things to the next level, expanding our partnership to 530 stores across 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 and 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 We’re excited to announce that 280 new stores have been added to the Snappy Shopper platform, building on the success of the initial 250 store rollout in October. That’s 530 One Stop locations now delivering convenience to even more communities across the UK! But that’s not all… Snappy Rewards is here! 🎉 This exclusive loyalty programme lets customers unlock tiered perks, from free products to discounts on future orders, making every shop even more rewarding. 🛒💫 This is a great opportunity for our brand partners with Snappy and One Stop to convert even more shoppers to the brands they love 🆕 #SnappyMedia Brilliant building on this partnerhsip with Tim Josephs and team 🤝 Tim Josephs, Head of Online at One Stop, added: “Delivering a seamless shopping experience is what we’re all about. Extending our partnership with Snappy Shopper and rolling out Snappy Rewards means more customers can enjoy great-quality products at fantastic prices, delivered straight to their doorsteps in minutes.” This partnership is transforming grocery delivery with 🚀 expansion, 🎁 rewards, and 🌍 community impact, taking convenience delivery to the next level 🚚 in #OneStop #Delivery #QuickCommerce #Expansion #Retail #Convenience #SnappyMedia #Brands #Growth #Launches #New #RetailTech #DeliveryTech #Community #Rewards #Loyalty

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Having spent many hours walking the aisle of the UK retailers supporting our clients on their growth strategies, one of the highlights from this updated really caught my eye 12.5% growth in Finest, well above the 5% for food. Just last night delving deeper into the growth of finest, the support inshore within the main fixtures, off location and promotional activity are all clearly supporting the growth of the Tesco premium brand. Valuable insights which signposts growth opportunities into retail export markets for contract manufacturing opportunities helping retailers expand their premium categories which looks to be increasingly focused on great tasting affordable food to differentiate. Some great examples being #condiments, #seafood, #frozenmeals, #bakedgoods #slowcookedmeats #foodandrink #milk #premiumfoods #retail #groceryretail #ukretail #australianretail #contractmanufacturing #responsiblysourced #privatelabel #ownbrand MONIKA KEMP (Née Gajek) Food and Drink Exporters Association (FDEA) Prof. Consulting Group #export

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Sainsbury’s sales soar as it makes biggest market share gains of any grocery Sainsbury’s sales soared in its first quarter as the supermarket said it had been winning customers from competitors every month for 15 consecutive months. In the 16 weeks to 22 June 2024, total sales grew 4.2% at the retailer, while grocery sales were even stronger, up 4.8% as chief executive Simon Roberts boasted of Sainsbury’s “market-beating grocery performance”. It came as the grocer saw a second year of volume growth and is winning more volume from primary customers than all other full-choice grocers, which it said is driving basket size growth “significantly ahead of all competitors”. During the first quarter, Sainsbury’s also had the biggest market share gains of any grocer with consistent net switching gains, it said. #sainsbury #marketshare #growth #retail #grocery #supermarket #competition #Aldi

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What happened in retail this week? 👇 - Asda workers have confirmed 10th-11th May as their latest strike dates. - B&M Retail sales have grown 10% to £5.5bn as budget-conscious consumers continue to hunt for savings. - Iceland Foods launched the first-ever supermarket customer panel to pen an election manifesto as the retailer follows through on its promise to give customers a voice during election year. - wilko is relaunching its free click-and-collect service which will be available from 217 stores UK-wide. - Morrisons introduced digital screens at food counters, providing brands the opportunity to promote products that complement the counter range. - Asda & Morrisons have resorted to selling stores to generate immediate cashflow due to significant debt loads. - Tesco teased its new design for the Clubcard logo after a High Court ruled its yellow circle in a blue square infringed Lidl GB’s trademark for its similar yellow circle branding. — — — — — — — I post the biggest stories from the UK’s biggest retailers each week. Connect with me to never miss a weekly update. #Retail #News #April 

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The final set of share numbers before Christmas already give us an indication of the winners & losers. Tesco & JS are powering ahead, as they have all year, Lidl are slowing down at a crucial time, Waitrose are growing ahead of the market, as are Iceland. The others are losing share. Aldi although they are behind the market are improving & when you go in their stores then they feel like they have their swagger back & it's been missing for some time! Retail is all about confidence & simplicity. When a Retailer is confident then their stores look good, the offers are competitive & they are often taking the lead. When a Retailer is not confident then stores feel tired, offers are not compelling & are often scattergun. Sometimes Retailers are outwardly shouting confidence but still come up short as they forget the number one rule, simplicity. If you have an offer for a product that everyone else is offering at a very competitive price & you want to undercut it by 15% then don't make that offer complicated. Don't put rules around it such as £8.50 for loyalty card holders when they spend over £45. This sounds like a promotion by someone working in Finance! Maybe because Finance know that when these stunt deals are run most Customers come in, buy the deal & leave, the halo effect really is not that great! You can always add in cheap rides for the kids, only 10p! During the Christmas period you have to appeal to your Core Customers first, then the secondary customers. If you lose your core shoppers at Christmas you lose twice, once for their big Christmas shop & then the following year when they keep shopping at the alternative! Waitrose have got it right this year, they have remembered what their customers want. It's not about niche food brands, it is about outstanding own label products, especially the top tier! They have a difficult job ahead to try and get back to 5% share, I am not sure they ever will with M&S firing on all cylinders! Customers are savvy, they know a good Retailer from a poor one or an average one & they take their money there. The next three weeks are absolutely crucial for every single Retailer & some of them will slip up. I am not sure that JS large stores will cope with demand with all the self-serve checkouts, I think that they have put in too many. They won't find this out until it's too late though, woe betide you if you make the big Christmas shop difficult! The next few weeks are all about availability & managing the colleagues. I worked instore for seven years, managing teams, at Toys R Us & Habitat, I know what the chaos is like in a store at Christmas. Calm heads will prevail as will those who make it simple, retail really isn't that complicated.... #theretailmind #groceryretail #Christmaschaos

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British supermarket chain Asda has embarked on a pilot project involving electronic shelf edge labels (eSELs) at its Express store in Manchester city centre, UK.  The initiative, conducted in collaboration with Vusion Group, involves installing 3,000 eSELs at the store. #retailtech #esl #asda #retailinnovation

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Giles Hurley, chief executive for Aldi UK and Ireland, said: “British shoppers are voting with their feet and choosing Aldi as their first-choice supermarket". I do believe that I said on Friday that Aldi's results would contain a small amount of PR spin. Hurley is right, British shoppers are voting with their feet, but in the past 4 months it has been in the opposite direction, to Aldi's competitors! In an interview with Emma Simpson for the BBC Hurley said 'There's always an ebb and flow' when asked if Aldi had lost customers. Aldi are not used to the ebb, they are used to the flow. The last time there was an ebb was 2020 during Covid when Aldi didn't have an online service. We know that Grocery retailing in the UK is all about optics, it's about spinning the positives, even in the face of overwhelming negatives. The wheels haven't completely come off at Aldi but they are very wobbly & I am not sure that just price will cut the mustard. For that reason Aldi are focusing on their premium ranges for this Christmas, Aldi's specially selected range will make up more than 50% of its overall Christmas offering for the first time. This means that they will be looking for customers to trade up, more importantly there will be no Aldi Match on any of their premium ranges! The battleground this Christmas will definitely by the top tier so expect to see a plethora of products Willy Wonka style! I don't want to take away from Aldi's results which are pretty impressive. Profit is at a record £536.7m with an extra £2.2bn of sales. This is an increase of 16% in sales & a 200% increase in profit! To put this into context, JS had sales of £30bn & profit before tax of £701m! Aldi's profit is now 3%, only Tesco have a higher %, so where has it come from? Cost savings? Reduction in investment? Maybe it's come from higher prices? There has to be a reason shoppers are less inclined to shop in Aldi than they were? If the price difference is no longer as significant as it was then Customers will look at alternatives, maybe a Retailer with a loyalty card? Aldi have announced their 'biggest ever store investment programme' today, £800m. Previously they have announced £1.4bn over two years so I do wonder how much of this is new money? Aldi do invest in store refurbishments much more than the traditional multiple retailers but will their ambition of 1500 stores in the UK ever be realised? I doubt it, there isn't the space! Retailer results are about spin, they always have been. I just hope that conversations in Aldi HQ are also not spin & that there is a dose of reality as well. #theretailmind #groceryretail #Aldi

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Aldi to invest £650m in UK expansion plans in 2025 Aldi has unveiled plans to invest around £650m across its UK store network next year. The German discounter said this includes the development of new stores in Fulham Broadway in London, Billericay in Essex, and Cheadle in Stoke-on-Trent, with the retailer targeting around 30 new store openings in total in 2025. This forms part of Aldi’s package of annual investment to accelerate its expansion across the UK’s towns and cities. It said “the rate of investment in 2025 continues from an equally busy new store opening programme in 2024”, with the retailer opening in new locations such as Totton in Hampshire, Cribbs Causeway in Bristol and Pwllheli in Gwynedd in recent weeks. #Aldi #Uk #expansion #europe #retail #store #grocery #opening #investment #discounter

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The most interesting thing about #kantar today is that Aldi are within 2% of Asda's market share. Unthinkable even a year ago, but represents a real concern for any retail leaders around the discounters carrying on regardless. Whether sales for #aldi are +2% / -2% or otherwise on Kantar. There will no let up from the discounters on their approach....... #Asda at -5.6% will surprise no one and as stated on here; Christmas will be the nadir but one can only presume brighter times are here with Allan Leighton. The challenge is that it will take time to get the tanker moving. #Morrisons were just +2% which given the woes of #asda is nowhere near strong enough. The stories of the BWS cabinets being opened tells its own story on sales growth, alongside the non-food specials being removed and more space opened out to festive food lines.......... Paints quite a worrying picture. The growth is barely there so clearly #Asda shoppers are decamping elsewhere. #Tesco lead the market growth with +5.2% sales and share up to 28.1%, #Sainsbury's remain strong at +4.7% and share just shy of 16%. #Lidl's growth continues to impress with +6.6% growth and share of 7.7%, only +0.3% on the year, however. It's clear from the wider market view that customers are holding off on purchases, the calendar flow for Christmas (IE still some way off and two more weekends) is playing in to this. Clothing data from #Kantar yesterday showed full price sales abruptly in to reverse too...... Clearly the #budget announcement on NI has spooked employers and by definition, employees who are suddenly worried over job security. Confidence is a fragile thing and the interest rate rises were some time ago, indeed, the rates have fallen since. But a number of customers will be having their ultra low rates come to an end, which immediately puts even more pressure on discretionary spending. Alongside this; #inflation has slowed but we are still recovering from the days of +10% inflation. I would wager most customers haven't felt inflation fall at all, if anything, the opposite is true. Indeed the #Christmas lunch is +6.5% this year. But inflation is slowing?!?! #kantar calls out Wines/Champagne and Spirits having biggest buy on deal. Buy 6, Save 25% on Wines has been almost everywhere in the market for weeks. The new 10p off a litre of fuel! All eyes on the big weeks to come; but consumer (and employer) confidence is notably fragile at the minute and the government must take full responsibility for this......... PS buried in the wider release is the news that #MarksandSpencer have benefitted from one in three households, at 32%, buying food, drink and other groceries from M&S during the 12 weeks to 1 December. Big periods for events and M&S wider appeal is starting to play through with the all important Christmas period where M&S typically pick up extra sales too. Sales +10.4% (!) #foodretail #christmas #trade #kantar

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STORE BLINDNESS. When was the last time you looked at your store through the eyes of a customer ? Unfortunately after many years of trading, it is only natural to become store blind. You need to look at your store with fresh eyes or alternatively get someone to do this for you. Stand accross the street from your store and take a good look. Does it need the signage to be refreshed ? Is your front window covered in unnecessary , outdated advertising ? Have you established a morgue for dead insects in your window 😂 ? Have you sat in your patient’s/customer’s waiting area and seen what they look at while they are waiting ? Do your customers see a happy team of employees or a miserable, unhappy team ? Remember customers/patients can’t ignore their senses: what they see, hear and smell. Ensure that they have a positive experience to all the above.

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What a brilliant marketing idea taking advantage of a big cultural moment. Brands that are able to quickly jump on these moments in smart ways as shown by Josh Kerr can really impact their fortunes. Unfortunately, too often bigger companies do not have the agility do take advantage of these unique and short-lived moments. #creativity #agile #trend #culturalrelevance

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**B&M delivers 10% revenue growth** B&M Retail has seen its full year sales rise by 10.1% to £5.5 billion as it continues its focus on delivering everyday low prices. Fourth quarter like-for-like sales at B&M UK edged up 2.9% in the 14 weeks to 30 March. This was driven by strong volume performance across both FMCG and general merchandise. Looking at the full year, B&M UK like-for-like sales rose by 3.7% following increased customer transaction numbers. The group opened 47 B&M UK gross new stores in the year, which was two ahead of previous guidance. B&M said the new shops are trading well, including the Wilko stores it acquired in the year, which are performing ahead of expectations Meanwhile, B&M is expecting its full year group adjusted EBITDA (pre-IFRS 16) to come in at the top end of guidance at £629 million to mark a 9.8% increase on the prior year. Alex Russo, chief executive, said: “The group has performed well in the year delivering strong operational execution. We serve our customers through a relentless focus on everyday low prices (EDLP), great product ranges and excellence in operational standards. This delivers profitable, cash generating growth for our shareholders. Link to full article in comments.

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TAKING A NEW PERSPECTIVE Wrapping up two days at Henley Business School looking at personal development and enterprise & risk, I’ve been reflecting on how easy it is to take for granted all that Kingfisher plc and our brilliant banners (B&Q, Screwfix, Castorama, Castorama Polska Sp. z o.o., BRICO DÉPÔT, Brico Depôt Iberia (Grupo Kingfisher), Brico Depot Romania (part of Kingfisher Group)) are doing across responsible business. Going around the room reviewing the different corporate values and ESG facts and figures, I hadn’t appreciated quite how leading we are in this space across so many dimensions. There’s always more to do (and there is so much to be done!), but it’s easy to be trapped in the internal echo chamber and think everyone is on this. We have so much to be proud of. It’s therefore very timely to see Nathan Cao, CFA sharing Kingfisher’s award best communication of Sustainability at the Investor Relations Society Best Practice Awards (alongside Best Investor Relations Programme). Well done to everyone in the business and a good reminder to take a step back every now and then and appreciate where we are. If you missed our RB report, link in comments #kingfisher #responsiblebusiness #esg #sustainability

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Footfall was so nearly positive for August, but not quite. Read the full report with here, with commentary from Helen Dickinson and I. https://lnkd.in/ePh2dyzj. #RetailInsights #FootfallAnalysis

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A great move for Primark and its customers. Whatever size retail business you are, Connected Retail is the way forward. Fully integrated to optimise, payments, stock management, loyalty, returns and customer journey. #omnichannel #retail #connectedretail #embeddedpayments

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