With a UK turnover of about £2.7 billion, Spar UK is a major player. The role of managing director at such a business could seem somewhat daunting, but Debbie Robinson is up for the challenge.
In her 25 years in retail she has learnt some valuable lessons, not least at The Co-operative, where she was marketing director and responsible for the ‘Good with food’ campaign. Her main insight has always been to stay close to the customers and their needs, and quality fresh produce is the number-one priority for Spar’s customers, she says when we meet at her new office, a glass building in Harrow, north west London.
“Fresh food is a key component in our growth strategy, along with our own label, which of course tends to be focused on fresh food as well,” she says. “I had a lot of fresh food experience at The Co-op, and my learning was actually that less is more and that you should have smaller ranges of fabulously displayed products and keep standards really high. When you get it right it has a halo effect on the performance of the rest of the business because fresh food is the barometer of the overall standard of the store.”
Robinson admits that getting the balance right between value for customers and good returns is always a challenge, but says the way to get around it is by working closely with suppliers and choosing products carefully. “Simply changing the variety of apples can help enormously in terms of shelf life. Switching from Gala to Braeburn, which lasts longer both in store and in the home, is a good example of how you can make good common-sense decisions in the interest of both the retailer and the consumers.”
It’s about fairness, she says, because at the end of the day farmers and producers have to make money, retailers have to make money, and consumers have to have value. “Increasingly, all of those margins are being squeezed. So everybody is having a tough time, but I think that’s the time when we have to be creative about looking at efficiencies in terms of production, distribution and retailing, so ultimately we’re all sustainable.”
Apart from working closely with growers and producers, she is keen to emphasise the focus on British and regional sourcing. “We give really strong support to British producers because we are rooted in the community and tend to take products that are as locally sourced as we can. Of course, you have to import products like citrus and bananas, but we have a common-sense approach and if it’s produced in Britain we take it from Britain. For example, in the South West there’s a whole range of products being developed under the Spar brand but with a regional twist, which is going really well.”
The regional approach makes sense from a logistical point of view too. Supplying fresh produce to 2,600 stores sounds like a challenge, but Robinson explains that the logistics infrastructure that allows Spar to offer fresh deliveries six days a week to the retail stores is all down to a localised strategy. “Because of the proximity of our distribution centres to both the producers and the stores, it’s never far to travel. There’s one store where products are coming from four miles down the road. It’s just been an ongoing commitment to British farming, probably more than we’ve ever communicated.”
In terms of market growth, Robinson is acutely aware that in today’s market “retailers have to fight for every pound”. “I think it’s down to good planning and great execution in store, so we’ve put a lot of emphasis around the development of the sales plan. We are looking at ways of increasing fresh fruit and vegetable consumption, possibly with the help of promotions. I think Aldi did really well when they did the ‘Super 6.’ Something like that really captures the imagination, resulting in a whole different level of performance, which is good.”
Clearly the discounters are not a million miles apart from Spar’s own ‘value for money’ concept, but which other supermarkets does Robinson look at for inspiration?
“I look at all of the retailers constantly,” she reveals. “Although UK food retailing is world class, whenever I am on holiday I always go to the supermarket. My children think it’s bonkers but I always have to go there and have a look!”
She thinks we should be “really proud” of the UK food industry, but there is an area where she thinks there is room for improvement, or at least a rethink - the obsession with identically shaped fruit and veg. “Our insistence on quality may have led us into almost perfect fruits and vegetables when actually there is perfectly good, slightly oversized or undersized fruit and veg that tastes just as good, and there could well be an opportunity for us to do some work there in terms of adding great value for customers by taking a slightly broader range of products.
“I’m not talking about a deterioration in quality or taste,” she quickly adds, “but I’ve been to banana plantations and been staggered by the amount of waste just because there was the wrong number of bananas in a hand. It seems such a shame when there’s a high proportion of society that are going to bed hungry every night.”
Eliminating waste is part of the NPD work that is done in-house and in collaboration with suppliers. One trend that has been identified is the fact that almost a third of all people are living alone. “There are issues around food waste and the cost of food, and there’s nothing more demoralising than throwing away half a pack of something. I think suppliers can help with portion sizes and quantity and case configuration, so you’re still getting the distribution economies of scale, but you’re able to offer the customer variety.”
Understanding what makes customers tick is clearly at the forefront of Robinson’s thinking, which goes a lot further than just increasing the basket spend.
“I love the psychology, the behaviour around the whole shopping experience - the motives and intent of what will make you buy more. I find that fascinating. The role that food and food retailing has in society is such an integral part, it is a genuine lifeline, and I think the opportunity to explore how that is evolving over time is really interesting.” -
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