Fledgling supermarket chain Haldanes has backed its local sourcing strategy with the engagement of a marketing firm.
Award-winning marketing specialist Stephanie Rice has joined the retailer to help build the company’s Refreshingly Local strategy.
Rice will spearhead a pilot project at the firm’s recently opened store in Carterton, Oxfordshire with the aim of boosting understanding of customer needs and building Haldanes’ local credentials.
A key element of the remit will be to fulfil Haldanes’ goal of sourcing locally up to a third of its produce.
Haldanes’ chairman Arthur Harris said he was delighted to have secured the services of Rice, who is md of Rice Retail Marketing, and looked forward to working closely with Rice and her team.
He said: ‘We are very excited to have secured Stephanie’s services for this key project which I am sure will be a great success and will deliver the template which we will be able to replicate and build on in all our stores across the UK.”
Rice, who was marketing director of Budgens-Musgrave-Londis before starting her own business in 2007, is regarded as an expert in retail marketing. She has more than 20 years’ experience of the convenience retail sector, nine at board level, and is noted for her expertise in community and social marketing.
Rice said: “Refreshingly Local is a great brand and Haldanes is an innovative new company. The essence of what we will be doing is bringing alive the brand by creating a local personality for the store through the produce it offers and its involvement in the life of the community. We are very excited to be playing a leading role in this.”
Since its launch six months ago, Haldanes has opened 25 outlets, from Wick in the north of Scotland to Carterton.
The Oxfordshire store has been chosen for the pilot because of its rural location and the numerous opportunities that Haldanes will provide for local growers and producers.
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