Londis, Victoria Park, London

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When Sunny Gill and his brother Gurjiit decided it was time to modernise their Londis store in East London’s Victoria Park, every section came under scrutiny. They invited C-Store along to see how their plans shaped up and witness the reception the new-look store is getting.

While the team haven’t increased the 150sq m store, they have made more of the space they have. One corner that was previously used for storage has had chillers installed to expand the alcohol range.

Stock has been extended by 400 lines, with Sunny and Gurjiit now able to offer ethnic foods. “We had a lot of multiple facings of the same product,” says Sunny. “The refit was a good opportunity to review and cut back on facings.”

As part of the £97,000 refit, the team widened aisles and installed new flooring and ceilings. “We wanted the store to be more appealing to customers so they would keep coming back to shop with us,” says Sunny.

To fit in with the modernisation of the store, the brothers installed a new epos system to help them keep track of sales better. To cope with the expected extra custom, they also added another till point at the counter.

Although crime is not a major worry for them, the team took the opportunity to increase security. They installed a CCTV system that includes a large screen providing a view of the entire store.

Before the refit, the store didn’t have room for promotional ends. In order to remedy this, Sunny designated space at the end of each aisle for promotions and to encourage shoppers to put an extra item in their baskets.

The Jordon Group completed the refit over two weeks and, during that time, Sunny and Gurjiit served customers from a stall outside of the store. It didn’t deter customers from coming back and the store is now busier than ever.

Another area that has been enhanced is the news and magazines section. The brothers thought their previous news and magazines offering wasn’t up to scratch and in the refit expanded the range to match demand.

The modernisation has allowed the brothers to double the amount of spirits stocked. “It was cramped and customers couldn’t really see them. It’s good to be able to show off what we have,” says Sunny.