Click here to view the video.
Spar China has won the first International Convenience Retailer of the Year Award, launched by Insight and NACS.
The prestigious award, sponsored by Imperial Tobacco and Airplay, was presented during the Insight NACS Future of International Convenience Retailing Event in London last month (September).
In a tense and exciting final, Spar China beat off competition from Pick N Pay in South Africa, Ryan’s Centra in Ireland and Sainsbury’s Local in the UK by winning the online vote.
Judges had shortlisted the four retailers in the inaugural year of the award. Readers of Global Convenience Store Focus were then asked to vote for their favourite online after reading company profiles and viewing photographic and video evidence.
More than 2,250 readers exercised their vote and crowned Spar China the overall winner.
Spar’s new convenience format in China took pole position by combining global retailing expertise with local know-how.
The Spar Hongtu store in Dongguan City, Guangdong Province, is independently owned by the Hu family, hypermarket retailers from Dongguan.
The concept was launched in December 2008 in the face of growing competition from international retailers including Wal-Mart, Carrefour and Metro. The aim was to provide a convenience store to meet consumers’ changing needs.
The Spar Hongtu store occupies 900sq m and has a store layout designed around shopping missions with a strong emphasis on food-to-go. This area is located on an island at the front of the store and features an Italian coffee bar, Treehouse juice and smoothie bar, Kitsu noodles and Dim Sum to go. Consumers can eat either in the extensive in-store dining area, complete with a food-to-go electronic order point, or take food away.
SPAR International and Mr Hu celebrate winning the award with the store team
Spar has created a fresh market atmosphere in the store with a wide choice of pre-packed or loose produce and promotions across all fresh areas. To meet local needs, Spar Hongtu sells fresh fish from fish tanks to enable customers to select their fish in a similar way to the traditional wet markets in China.
Technological enhancements go hand in hand with the improved product range. There is a wine scanner for information and meal suggestions, a self-ordering system, self-checkout, Wi-Fi internet access and self-serve weighing scales.
Customer service and facilities are further enhanced with a seating area at the front of the store and a customer loyalty programme, which encourages customers to collect points and redeem rewards. The store also provides free rental umbrellas, spectacle cleaning, utility payment and photo copying.
The average basket spend in hypermarkets in China is low as people shop little and often, especially for fresh. Spar, conversely, provides fresh food and value on the doorstep and removes the need to travel to out-of-town hypermarkets. That helps time-pressed shoppers and introduces new categories and concepts too. The new concept store is growing sales and margin and seeing an increase in the number of transactions on a monthly basis. The average basket spend is equivalent to 50% of basket spend in a hypermarket and on the opening day 7,000 customer transactions were processed.
From a community perspective, Spar is heavily involved in the local market via a number of initiatives. It supports local small-scale growers and suppliers and buys directly from them. Employees have also initiated events to pick up litter in various public locations. A drawing competition for younger customers has been instigated and the winning artwork will be printed on environmentally-friendly shopping bags, a practice carried out in other countries and an example of global knowledge locally applied. Spar Hongtu also organises workshops for children and cooking demonstrations and hosts adventure tours plus customer and staff reward tours.
Being different and innovating in a competitive retail environment is paying dividends for Spar in China and success is spearheading future roll out.
Spar plans to open 10 more convenience stores in Guangdong Province by the end of 2009. In the medium term it is targeting 80 in the Guangdong province within three years and 300 in the next five years.
Popular with judges, Spar China impressed on a number of fronts. Joe Bona, president at CBX, and a judge on this year’s panel, told Global Convenience Store Focus: “Spar China was a number one contender for the title, not just because it is such a category shift for that market but because it is really world class for any market.”
Ramon Kuijpers, international key accounts manager at sponsor Imperial Tobacco, said: "Through our sponsorship of this award Imperial Tobacco are proud to support our key international retail partners. We recognize and value the efforts that are provided within a competitive environment to meet their shopper’s needs. Accordingly Spar China has delivered an outstanding performance.”
Spar China was presented with a trophy and bottle of Champagne at the industry dinner on 15 September 2009. The three finalists were also presented with certificates and Champagne.
In addition to winning the accolade of International Convenience Retailer of the Year 2009, Spar China’s winning store will be filmed by C-TV, in association with Imperial Tobacco and Airplay.
Readers of Global Convenience Store Focus will be able to view the video footage on a future edition and via the Insight web site.
 |
|
|
Award program sponsored by Airplay and Imperial Tobacco |