The Co-op looks to defend its market share in the convenience retail channel

By Angela Mount, Erin Smith

Published: 05 June, 2015

In an exclusive interview with Angela Mount for this month's print edition of Harpers, which is out today, Simon Cairns the BWS category manager for The Co-operative explains how critical the convenience retail channel is becoming for the company.

"We can't be all things to all people. We need to focus totally on convenience retailing, working within 2,000- to 4,000-square-foot shop formats. That is our single biggest message and objective," said Cairns.

The current price wars within the UK has forced many retailers to take a long hard look at their overall strategies and the Co-op is no different.

The Co-op which has over 4,000 shops in the UK has decided not compete with other retailers for the 'big weekly' shops, but instead decided to defend its market share in the convenience retailing category.

"The biggest change within the new strategy is that there is now a very clear message, which runs throughout the business, that we are focusing totally on convenience within our 2,000-4,000 sq ft fascias," says Cairns. 'This means I can present a very concise message to our suppliers, who need to focus on this aspect entirely in the development of their plans."

This can present a few challenges as with smaller format stores which automatically means every SKU has to be adding value. Cairns realises that "we have no room for error."

This is even more true for the Co-op as wine is a critical piece of its offering and a competitive advantage for the company against other retailers. With 9.5% share of the total wine market, The Co-op over trades in wine by 3% compared to it's 6.5% share of the total grocery market.

Currently The Co-op carries 344 SKUs of which an average of 160 will be stocked at stores at a given time. Managing the stock levels at the smaller stores then is something that has to be actively managed to make sure that adequate volumes are maintained and that the offering is diverse enough to continue to attract customers.

This is a tall order, as The Co-op has arguably one of the more diverse demographics of any major retailer.

See the full interview with Simon Cairns to learn more about the company's strategy moving forward and its supplier relationships (subscriber only).

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