Spar retailer Clive Sheppard is the lucky recipient of a £2,000 prize fund to help towards a local community project after his Winning Post forecourt store near Exeter won a competition by Nature Valley manufacturer General Mills.

The competition, which ran in Convenience Store magazine, required stores to tweet a picture of their cereal bar displays.

General Mills’ sector controller for high street, health, travel and leisure Jason Simpson said: “Winning Post won our competition as it embraced a number of key principles to drive cereal bar sales – a front of store location, with proximity to key food to go items such as its coffee offer, and in store deli.  It has also used POS to create on shelf stand out, and secondary display to drive incremental sales.”

Clive plans to use the prize money to enhance a three acre site of ‘Special Scientific Interest’ at the rear of his store.  

“The site is very beautiful and has lots of lovely trees and grasses however it is all quite overgrown,” he said.

”We want to use the money from Nature Valley to tidy it up a bit and add some information boards so that members of the public can learn all about its special flora and fauna.”

“We are very grateful to have won and hope that the work will make a really meaningful difference to the local community,” he added.