Londis has launched a new support scheme designed to help its retailers share best practice and grow their businesses.

The Londis Family consists of three new programmes which have been designed with the help of its retailers.

The Cluster Families programme seeks to help retailers form local networks and provide opportunities for meeting and socialising. Organised within the existing network of 15 Londis clusters, each Cluster Family will be headed by an elected chair who will be responsible for co-ordinating regular, informal meetings between retailers. A new dedicated section of the retailer website will be launched to support the programme, and each Cluster Family will have its own forum featuring news, events, useful links and contact details.

The Londis Mentor Scheme will bring together retailers with a particular expertise who are willing to give their time to help new or inexperienced retailers on a one-to-one basis.

Londis retailers will be able to sign up online to either to give or receive help through a dedicated section on the Londis retailer website.

Thirdly, the Londis Voice programme will allow Londis retailers to voice their opinions and help influence future brand plans via a monthly questionnaire. Distributed by email, Londis will regularly share the results with retailers, and use findings to shape future business decisions.

Londis sales director Scott Wharton said he hoped the scheme would help retailers remain competitive.

“The marketplace for convenience retail is constantly changing and to help our retailers remain competitive, we must adapt and find new ways to help share success,” he said.

“We have listened to our retailers who told us that whilst they want to retain autonomy in running their own businesses, they also want a more structured programme to help them learn from one another. In response to this, we are providing a framework to offer a more informal and social support network for our retailers, so that we can all work together for mutual benefit.”