SuperValu’s “phenomenal” transformation
In December, SuperValu on King’s Road underwent a massive £430,000 revamp creating a whole new look and eight new jobs
The major investment by Musgrave comprises a fresh hot and cold deli, an upgraded butchery area and a new gourmet coffee stand, Frank and Honest. The major new development promises to cater for every type of customer; from local residents collecting their weekly essentials, to the busy office worker seeking healthy but convenient lunch and dinner alternatives.
Following the new investment, store manager Raymond Barr and wholesale director for Musgrave Trevor Magill take a look back at some of SuperValu’s highlights from the last year, and talk about how the transformed store on Kings Road has taken off.
According to Trevor, although 2018 had its challenges, it has been a prosperous year for the company overall.
“2018 was a strong year for SuperValu. We launched a new campaign “The Super and The Value”, focusing on providing our customers with local, quality food at great value prices. We continued to roll out Frank & Honest Gourmet Coffee across our stores, which is proving to be hugely popular with both new and regular customers alike and in the run up to Christmas we relaunched our SuperValu Signature Tastes range across all our stores.
“In terms of community engagement, we’ve continued our partnership with Action Cancer, sponsoring the Big Bus, which brings lifesaving breast screening and health check services to local towns across Northern Ireland, while our SuperValu SuperStars initiative helped celebrate the local contribution of everyday heroes in communities’ right across the province.”
Although SuperValu thrived in 2018 and holds a positive outlook for the New Year, Brexit remains an unknown quantity and the company have spent a significant amount of time planning for several different eventualities to ensure they can minimise the impact this will have both on their retailers and consumers. Nevertheless, the renovation of the store on King’s Road has been a shining highlight in a year of political turbulence.
Raymond says the revamp of the store has brought up-to-date convenience to the community.
“Along with an abundance of fresh, local produce, SuperValu King’s Road also showcases additional store concepts including a Post Office which is essential for some of our customers who don’t want the hassle of travelling into the city centre. We also have a free to use ATM machine and a free home delivery service which is very popular.
“We believe in working with local food and drink producers and are proud to be stocking sweets from Aunt Sandra’s, Bells’ Tea and a range from Kirk’s Home Bakery, to name a few, and our red meat is sourced from Northern Ireland.”
As well as an impressive face lift, Trevor Magill says the stores makeover has also created employment opportunities.
“We’ve had a SuperValu store on the King’s Road for 22 years now; it’s long been a real hub in the local community, but it was time for a refresh of the offering. We invested £430,000 in a significant revamp of the store in 2018, creating eight new jobs. This brought new services such as a new hot and cold deli, which serves up a mouth-watering selection of food; an upgraded butchery area with great value deals; and gourmet coffee from Frank & Honest.
“With additional amenities including a Post Office, free ATM and a free home delivery service, we’re responding to the changing needs of the busy consumer by providing solutions that help to make life easier.
“In keeping with the trend of our store refresh programme, since the refurbishment, the new-look store has gone from strength to strength. We’re seeing new customers coming through the doors and old customers coming back to us to see what’s new.
The team strive to provide customers with convenient, inspiring shopping solutions. According to Raymond, it’s imperative that their customers enjoy their traditional values of outstanding customer service and good quality foods with competitive pricing.
“I’ve spoken to as many customers as I can and the feedback about the changes we have made has been incredibly encouraging with one customer describing the store as, phenomenal. We can’t wait to welcome even more customers, new and old, to our new-look store.”
Trevor is also deeply encouraged by the response from the surrounding community.
“The feedback has been fantastic; they love the new fresh offering, our upgraded butcher counter, our hot and cold food deli, as well as our extended health and wellness range. Customers have also said that they are now really taking their time to shop the entire store and are enjoying discovering new, local products.”
Looking ahead to trends in the New Year, Trevor says that healthier food options and “Grab and Go” meals continue to be a massive hit amongst consumers.
“Our customers have been telling us that they want healthier options throughout the day and across the store and we see that trend continuing into 2019. To meet that demand, we’ve been working hard to bring in a renewed focus on our Health and Wellness range, be that in our ‘Grab-and-Go’ fridges, the deli, our defined Health & Wellness bays, or even in the freezer.
“It goes without saying though, that while catering for new and emerging trends is important; getting the basics right is essential. It’s imperative to us that our customers enjoy the traditional values of outstanding customer service and good quality, fresh foods, paired with competitive pricing.”
Environmentally friendly products are also trending even more in 2019. By partnering with Frank and Honest coffee company, who hold a national geographical footprint with 630 locations across the island of Ireland, SuperValu are supporting a more sustainable Northern Ireland.
Trevor adds: “We’ve lots to offer our customers in 2019 and have ambitious plans and a number of major investments in our stores coming in the near future. We will continue to roll out a significant programme of refurbishments across the estate and we will introduce gourmet coffee from Frank and Honest to more of our stores.”
