We’ve been looking at a range review of the whole store recently, looking at the products and categories where we’ve duplications we don’t need and don’t want.

We’ve been identifying the slow sellers and then finding alternatives. Where there aren’t alternatives, we’ve doubled the facings of the bestselling products. It’s meant that we’ve cut back a lot on our overall range and we’ve got a lot less stock taking up space in the storeroom. It’s essentially felt like we’ve revamped the whole store.

Timing

It’s always good to do a range review. January and February are the best times to be doing this because it’s a bit slower in the shop and you can have a really close look at things. Where there were products that were out of date, it prompted us to think about whether we really needed to order any more.

Soft drinks is the category where we’ve made the most cutbacks. It’s a category where you can easily get carried away with lines, but we were ruthless and we’ve now increased the facings on the core-selling lines. You have to be ruthless when you’re doing a range review. Ambient groceries and tinned products are other categories where we’ve reduced our range by a lot.

Finding new opportunities

One area where we’ve increased and improved our range is in petfood. We’ve got an independent supplier and that’s going really well. We’ve expanded the range to cover a greater number of pets, so we’ve got a good range of birdseed and things like that. It’s all about finding unique selling points.

We’re also in talks with a new supplier – Fieldfare. Their frozen products are loose, which is great for helping people who are watching their pennies. They can pick up however many they need rather than buying lots and storing it. They can also get more variety for their family. If one person doesn’t like fish, they can split between fish and chicken meals. There’s also great variety in their desserts, too.

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