Martin Swadling, Premier

It’s fair to say that the Premier symbol is well established in mainland UK.

With more than 3,000 stores nationwide the group has now added to this figure with two new stores in Northern Ireland.

In the past few months, the symbol has teamed up with seasoned retailers here  who have now branded with Premier.

Newtownards retailer Brian Meneely and Anthony Green who runs a store in Lurgan have been up and running with Premier for a number of months and Premier director Martin Swadling is confident that once other retailers experience the stores for themselves they will see the benefits of working with the symbol.

Premier’s catch line is ‘Amazing Value Locally’ and the symbol achieves this thanks to being backed by Booker, the UK’s leading food and drink wholesaler.

Booker’s acquisition of Makro in 2013 has been part of the driver for Premier’s expansion in regions where it has previously been underrepresented, such as London, Liverpool and now Northern Ireland.

Premier retailers can order their goods from the Makro Belfast branch and have them delivered to the store or call in and collect in person.

“Premier is about making more profit for our retailers and giving shoppers a better experience in store,” Martin told NR.

He goes on to explain the how the symbol sets about achieving this.

“Firstly, in terms of the profitability for retailers, we don’t charge anything to be part of Premier,” he said.

“There’s no membership, no surcharges, delivery fees or marketing charges – so that takes out a lot of hidden costs our competitors have.”

Premier retailers sign up to a three-year contract and Premier will invest in a new store fascia, internal imagery and merchandising.

The cornerstones of the Premier offer to retailers are the promotional offers as Martin says the key thing shoppers are looking for is value.

“Our hugely popular own label – Euro Shopper, Happy Shopper and Farm Fresh offer extremely good value for money for the customer and will guarantee retailers 30 per cent profit on return,” said Martin.

Martin sees these promotions as often beating or matching those in the big supermarkets.

“We also give Every Day Low Prices (EDLP) on bread, milk and sugar at a £1 all the time and this is available to all Northern Ireland retailers.

“Because of this we have a strong brand and recognisable fascia on the mainland and now we want to make this happen here in Northern Ireland.”

There are 172 Booker branches covering England, Scotland and Wales and there are also 30 Makro branches which offer retailers what Martin describes as a unique ordering system.

“Our retailers have the ability to order online at delivery cash and carry prices; also they can call into their local Makro and purchase the stock direct,” explained Martin.

“This allows our retailers to buy what they want when they want but it also enables them to have a much stronger relationship with the business.

So rather than have just a Retail Development Manager (RDM) they can have contact with the guys who pick the product and deliver it – as well as the people who run the branch. We believe this is a good relationship model too.”

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