In the final few days before our store was due to be relaunched after its full refit I got more and more anxious.

I set myself high standards and by the time my wife and I left the store the night before the launch I knew there were still too many things that we had not managed to get done.

Save the date

We had set the date and were going to stick to it as we had arranged for the Lord Mayor of Sheffield to come and officially relaunch the store with a ribbon cutting ceremony at 3pm. We had also arranged for a street party for our community, with children’s entertainment in the form of a bouncy castle and bucking bronco. I had also obtained a road closure order to allow for this to happen.

The big day

When the Saturday morning arrived I had a great sense of relief because no matter what, the store launch was going to happen. As with all major life events, the memory of the day is a bit of a blur, but the key to any success is to prioritise what needs to be done. With this in mind we needed more stock so my wife, Mandeep and I did a cash & carry run and arranged for some of our staff to be on hand when we returned to deal with the stock.

Former retailer, Steve Denham from Better Retailing spent the day in the store to cover the launch and I roped him into scanning our entire product range as we had not managed to get the shelf edge labelling done. With the help of family members most of the labels were in place by the time the party started at 2pm. Just before midday Chris, the Parfetts business development manager, had arrived and with his merchandisers and got the promotional point of sale shelf barkers and posters placed around the store.

Community spirit in action

The biggest issue I was getting stressed about was whether or not enough people would come to our party. That was answered by early afternoon as we were preparing the event, as the store started getting busy and the service road outside began to fill with people.

The community really supported us and the Lord Mayor cut the ribbon and our celebratory cake. He also spent time talking to us and many other people who attended the event.

My wife and I along with our team had a great day. Lots of people told us how much they liked the new look store and most importantly – sales were well up!

From planning to launch day – follow the journey from the very beginning.