Country Choice has unveiled its largest 'shop within a shop' installation to date, at Costcutter on Thames Valley University's new Brentford campus.
Retailer Imran Khan, whose family own 30 Costcutter stores across London, says the format is proving popular with the students and he is confident that sales will continue to grow as he makes a greater variety of products available to shoppers.
The store already offers a wide selection of baguettes, sweet and savoury pastries, cooked breakfasts, curries and a value 99p bean-to-cup coffee machine. It also stocks a wide range of grocery lines, making it the ideal solution for students looking to grab a bite to eat or to top up on essential products.
Imran explains: "The first few months have gone really well. We're selling more than 80 baguettes a day on average and taking more than £600 a day on food to go alone.
Traditional products including sausage rolls are also good sellers.
"The curry sells well from lunchtime right throughout the day.
"Our customers also really like the fact they can get a cup of coffee for under a pound, rather than spending more than twice as much at other coffee shops. We're also going to start offering pizzas and smoothies soon.
"It looks good to be able to offer everything under the same brand. At the moment everyone is getting used to what we're doing now, but we're ready to go on the other products we intend to add.
"It's easy to keep developing the range and to test new products."
Rustlers manufacturer Kepak Convenience Foods is launching a new heat-to-eat panini designed for the c-store sector. Ugo's Deli Café Panini is available in two variants and is targeted predominantly at women aged 25 to 45 years old. Both variants - chargrilled chicken with mozzarella cheese & pesto and bacon, cheese & mustard mayo - retail for £2.49. A £1.6m investment will support the brand throughout 2008. Marketing activity will include ads in the national women's press from March.
Bakemark UK has increased its bake-off portfolio with the launch of
a range of American-style muffins. Ready to serve in 20 minutes, the range is available to retailers in five variants including blueberry, double choc chunk and lemon & poppy. There is also a better-for-you red berry muffin, which contains 25% less fat. The muffins cook in just 10 minutes and are ready to sell after cooling for a further 10 minutes.
Cuisine de France is launching a range of thaw-and-serve seasonal confectionery lines in time for Easter. In addition to the ever-popular six hot cross buns, the manufacturer is offering retailers three confectionery products topped with chocolate eggs - a chocolate cornflake cake, a vanilla iced cupcake and a chocolate egg cake. Marketing manager Clare Hallam says: "Our new Easter confectionery range has been created to make a retailer's operation easier and increase their profits over the Easter period."
Retailer Imran Khan, whose family own 30 Costcutter stores across London, says the format is proving popular with the students and he is confident that sales will continue to grow as he makes a greater variety of products available to shoppers.
The store already offers a wide selection of baguettes, sweet and savoury pastries, cooked breakfasts, curries and a value 99p bean-to-cup coffee machine. It also stocks a wide range of grocery lines, making it the ideal solution for students looking to grab a bite to eat or to top up on essential products.
Imran explains: "The first few months have gone really well. We're selling more than 80 baguettes a day on average and taking more than £600 a day on food to go alone.
Traditional products including sausage rolls are also good sellers.
"The curry sells well from lunchtime right throughout the day.
"Our customers also really like the fact they can get a cup of coffee for under a pound, rather than spending more than twice as much at other coffee shops. We're also going to start offering pizzas and smoothies soon.
"It looks good to be able to offer everything under the same brand. At the moment everyone is getting used to what we're doing now, but we're ready to go on the other products we intend to add.
"It's easy to keep developing the range and to test new products."
New products
Rustlers manufacturer Kepak Convenience Foods is launching a new heat-to-eat panini designed for the c-store sector. Ugo's Deli Café Panini is available in two variants and is targeted predominantly at women aged 25 to 45 years old. Both variants - chargrilled chicken with mozzarella cheese & pesto and bacon, cheese & mustard mayo - retail for £2.49. A £1.6m investment will support the brand throughout 2008. Marketing activity will include ads in the national women's press from March.
Bakemark UK has increased its bake-off portfolio with the launch of
a range of American-style muffins. Ready to serve in 20 minutes, the range is available to retailers in five variants including blueberry, double choc chunk and lemon & poppy. There is also a better-for-you red berry muffin, which contains 25% less fat. The muffins cook in just 10 minutes and are ready to sell after cooling for a further 10 minutes.
Cuisine de France is launching a range of thaw-and-serve seasonal confectionery lines in time for Easter. In addition to the ever-popular six hot cross buns, the manufacturer is offering retailers three confectionery products topped with chocolate eggs - a chocolate cornflake cake, a vanilla iced cupcake and a chocolate egg cake. Marketing manager Clare Hallam says: "Our new Easter confectionery range has been created to make a retailer's operation easier and increase their profits over the Easter period."
No comments yet