'It's not the store it used to be!' Goran Raven takes new site to the next level

Back in February, Budgens retailer Goran Raven decided to move further into the c-store sector with a new opening, to complement the one he recently opened at his forecourt site in Abridge, Essex.

Fast forward three months, and Goran says he’s already seeing a 25% increase in sales at his new store in the nearby large village of Stock.

When he bought the site, he says most of the work needed was remedial – cleaning, stock analysis and more, but that after these changes were implemented, the cost was mimimal compared to the £700k refit he implemented at the forecourt in 2023. “I could see lots of areas to improve on but we’ve not spent a penny on a refit - we just got the brooms out! But that that’s been one of the biggest things to do as it had been neglected.

“Put it this way - when we brought our steam cleaner in from another store, we were having bets as to what colour the floor really was! It was a bargain to buy, and you could see that with a bit of elbow grease you could turn the store around extraordinarily quickly.”

Also previously run as a Budgens, Goran retained all the staff, even adding three more. The results have spoken for themselves. “We took the view that we’re going to invest in waste and get the fresh lines in there, and get the customer base knowing that we’re doing fresh food and to us, that’s one of the quickest ways of lifting a store. As a result, at the moment we’re sitting at 25% growth week-on-week.”

”The first thing we did was look at the range they were stocking and just completely changed it, because of our demographic.”

Such impressive figures have, he says, largely stemmed from promotion and stock changes. “So far, the feedback’s been amazing. The first thing we did was look at the range they were stocking and just completely changed it, because of our demographic. We could run the store more efficiently, we added more grocery lines, for example.

“The fridges were full of multipack drinks and two litre bottles rather than fresh food. From a stock management point of view, the previous owners bought drinks because they’ve got long dates compared to fresh food.

“The rest of the changes we’ve made are more process-based - things that they’re doing that can be done a lot more efficiently in different ways. But I don’t want to overload the team. I don’t want to say, ‘everything you’ve done so far, you now have to do completely differently.’ I know it won’t work if I do that. To me that’s the path to the greatest success.”

This careful consideration of his staff has also been key to Goran’s success at the new store, he believes. “Once I get the team firing on all cylinders, I can take it to the next step. They’re amazing because shoppers walk through the door and they know everyone’s names. They know what they’re buying and make recommendations. So to me, there’s such an asset, that team, and they just need to be nurtured a little bit more - and it’s only a teeny nudge in in that direction. I’ve inherited a good bunch.”

In terms of products, just as with his forecourt store, Goran relies heavily on local sourcing. “We’ve teamed up with the local bakery, we’ve got local meat in there. We’ve got local eggs, potatoes - anything that we can get in. But we’re doing it bit by bit to make it easier for the team.”

Looking forward, Goran hints that he might well be planning more stores, but that a steady approach is working well at present. “I’ve been wanting to expand for a long time, but it had to be right. It had to be near to me and I had to operate so I could be hands-on there. I didn’t want to operate the store remotely from miles away. We’ve started with this one to see how to run multiple sites and to make sure we’re comfortable doing that before we start rolling on into other small stores.”

“The biggest challenge the store faces is letting the local population know we’ve changed and it’s not the store it used to be…”

As for the biggest challenge the store faces, Goran admits that a tweaking of opening hours and more promotion will be key. “The biggest challenge the store faces is letting the local population know we’ve changed and it’s not the store it used to be.

“We’ve gone back to what I call sensible operating hours, where in the past the store has had staffing issues. They shrunk the hours of the store and left it at that. It took us four weeks to get into the rhythm of everything and we’re now operating 7am-10pm daily.

“So it’s getting that message out to customers. We lean heavily on social media for that. We post in local community pages, we try to get involved in things. It’s just getting the message out - some people are still genuinely surprised when they come in thinking we were closed at this time and that’s part of our blooming great big bit of growth, because we’re open when customers want us to be.”