Booker to ‘do a better job’ on nine key categories

Booker has pledged to “do a better job” on nine key areas in its convenience retailers’ stores to help increase their profits.

Speaking at the NFRN annual conference last week, Steve Fox, Booker managing director – retail, said the company wanted to address the decline in footfall retailers are facing.

He said: “How do we increase your profits? We still do that by improving choice, price and service, but we have to also do it a little bit differently going forward.”

The nine areas include core ranging, food to go, chilled, bakery, events, local & regional produce, trends, health and technology.

“Look at the discounters Aldi and Lidl, if there’s one thing they’ve done a great job of over the past three-to-five years it’s bakery; it’s the first thing you see when you go in. So we’ve got to do a better job for our customers,” he said.

Fox pointed to Premier retailer Dan Cock for the great work he has done on preparing his store for the future.

On events, he stressed the importance of not just relying on key events like Christmas, Easter and Valentine’s Day to bring in footfall. “We’ve just done a wine fair in Londis, which has probably been the most successful event they’ve done and we’re going to roll that out to the rest of our estate,” he added.

“As a business we have to change and let retailers that want to take ideas forward, do it.”