Retailer Seelan Thambirajah knew something about his Premier store in the village of Hemingford Grey in Cambridgeshire could be improved.
Having worked in retail for over 25 years, and with 20 stores across numerous counties around the middle of England, Seelan felt his local community deserved extra special treatment, which a change in fascia might deliver.
Seelan had run the popular, if budget, store as a Premier branch for three years, but the direction he eventually took with it went beyond simply putting up new signs and altering the layout.
After speaking with the team at Booker, the decision was taken to trial a new Budgens concept store at the site, one of the first outside London. Seelan takes up the story: “It’s a new concept for Budgens - and a new concept for the village.
“The main reason for the change was because it’s an affluent area here. Martyn Parkinson at Booker wanted to try one of these stores as a completely different new concept, this time as a village community store. But this is an affluent area. I mean, each house is worth over a million pounds. And in the driveway, if you look, there are top branded cars…”
Once Seelan and his team had settled on the move they were planning, they went all-out to make the new store a destination for those seeking quality. “We now have more quality brands and a better quality of products. Previously the store did about £30k turnover per week, and we’ve invested about £60k.
”It’s a totally new concept for the village. This isn’t like adding a simple milkshake machine or Tango slush machine. It’s not like that. It’s a proper traditional shop which we’re bringing back to the local community.
“We put in a lot of woodwork and changed the layout and then added a lot of local products like sandwiches, wines, as well as lines from a local bakery and butchers.”
What happened next was a total shock for the longstanding retailer. “You wouldn’t believe it - we opened last Friday [10 July], and up to yesterday [13 July], we’ve achieved almost £25k of sales - almost 60% up. Put very simply, our seven-day sales have been achieved within three days.
“Put it this way - I’m 25 years in the industry, but I was still shocked…”
“I really was shocked and all my team were too. Everybody was. Put it this way - I’m 25 years in the industry, but I was still shocked. It’s a whole new learning curve for me.”
On the opening day last week, Parkinson was on hand to cut the ribbon. Seelan added: “If you look at the photos you can see he was shocked at the way the people came out to the opening and spoke to him. Local councillors came, reporters, and shoppers of course. As soon as Martyn cut the ribbon, he came for the one hour - but actually spent three hours with customers. We had local wine, pies, sausages - all handmade.”
Seerlan says the goal now is to convert further stores to the new Budgens concept: “I think we have three similar conversions in the pipeline in Cambridgeshire. We’ve decided, yes - after this outcome - it’s a no brainer.
“For the next stores we’re hoping to change, Martyn Parkinson and Colm Johnson from Booker are going to visit them this week or next. But for here, we just want to try to do small tweaks and smart moves once we see the data. We’ll tidy up a little bit more. The quality is important for the area. It’s not too complicated either. It’s pretty simple, but it works.”
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