A successful Walsall convenience retailer has relaunched two existing stores to become Go Local Extra and Go Local fascia stores.
Once the extensive interior refurbishments are complete, the new-look stores in Brownhills will provide healthy competition to nearby competitor stores and supermarkets, with the exteriors already attracting positive customer feedback.
With over four decades of experience, Pete Khela operated under the Costcutter fascia for 30 years. Pete’s father ran a successful family-owned business on Ogley Road before he took over. Pete opened a second store on Lichfield Road in 2006.
The 1,600 sq ft store on Ogley Road is being fully refurbished into a Go Local Extra store to feature a food-to-go offering including coffee and slushes, fresh groceries, multiple rows of well-stocked chillers, a completely new counter area, new lighting and shelving units and an extensive beer, wines and spirits section. Lichfield Road has been relaunched as a Go Local fascia store.
Steve Moore, Head of Retail at Parfetts, told Wholesale Manager how he worked with Pete on the revamp and what expansion plans Go Local has.
Tell us a little bit about the history of the stores.
They traded for the last 30 years as Costcutter. They have got two sites, within half a mile of each other, at Ogley Road, which is 1,600 sq ft and Litchfield Road, which is 800 sq ft. They are two distinct trading areas. I used to work for Costcutter and I knew them from old. There are two brothers, Pete and Mick, and I was having a conversation with Pete in which he said he felt he hadn’t had much support recently and I suggested why don’t you come and talk to us? So, we went along, I took my store development manager with me, and we walked through the benefits of Parfetts in terms of cost of goods, ease of doing business with, a less complex trading model, no delivery charges, membership fees, etc. I said I think we can really help you make more money, looking at store layouts, the range within the store, how we can exploit new areas, such as backlit spirits and putting tobacco under the counter, really opening up the retail space. As the main store is on a very busy main road, we were looking at the food to go offer, creating more of an opportunity to raise additional sales and profit through food to go: coffee, hot food, the usual slushies and that kind of stuff.
The point of difference is they were the first Go Local Extra in that area, so it was the pioneer spirit thing for Pete. We decided the main store on the Ogley Road would be the Go Local Extra and then the one around the corner will be the Go Local, two distinct different brands for the different types of trading models.
What was it about the Go Local Extra and Go Local brands that attracted Pete?
He has seen over a period of the last year since we’ve opened our depot in Birmingham, how we have grown our coverage. Driving around he has obviously seen a number of Go Local Extras popping up in the Midlands. The Go Local Coming Soon banners are everywhere, draped across existing stores that are changing over so there are lots of cues to what’s going on. And then he has a great relationship in depot with John Griffin, the general manager, he’s known John for a number of years, he has a lot of older relationships there, he trusts the people he talks to. Talking to him myself there was a trust element, we helped him understand that we were there to help him take more money.
Going back to three years ago, we weren’t as well known in the Midlands. We were known as Parfetts cash & carry but people didn’t really know what Go Local was about. As we have gained more and more traction, retailers talk to each other. Pete was telling me how he had a retailer in the store and said to him, “Look, you should be talking to Steve and the guys at Parfetts, they are doing a great job. My sales are up and more importantly, my profits are up.” So, a lot of it is word of mouth.
What’s the difference between the Go Local and Go Local Extra brands?
The main difference is that Go Local Extra is the bigger footprint store, so they tend to run a few more promotions and have more of a focus on fresh and food to go. Whereas Go Local stores are smaller, up to 1000 square foot, more impulse, that small neighbourhood store. The look and feel is slightly different but predominantly, it’s around the number of promotions they run and the model in terms of the layout in store so it’s a lot tighter in terms of range, but focused on more traditional categories such as impulse, cigarettes and alcohol, with a core grocery range.
What else did Pete like about Go Local and Go Local Extra?
One of the other things with Pete is the Go Local own label range. It’s something that nobody else has got, as we continue to grow, he saw that as a massive point of difference with the price marking etc. One other thing he really liked about Parfetts was the many price marked products within the range. But also our margin on promotions is significantly higher than competitors, so when he looked at the margin he was making with Costcutter compared to what he gets from us, he was really impressed with that.
What product categories will be on offer at the two different stores?
The main difference would be Ogley Road has more of a focus on fresh, a bigger range of fresh product, protein, fruit and veg and more of a focus on the food to go element, coffee etc. Everything else – grocery, household, confectionery – will be the same in both. It’s more of a larger basket spend in Ogley Road.
Which of your depots will be supplying the stores?
Birmingham. They were originally being supplied through the Somercotes depot on delivery only. Once they realised how efficient we are in terms of our delivery network and gained awareness of the Go Local brands, they made the decision to transition over to us.
How do you work with Pete on the revamp?
I was involved heavily, we have our own store development team in house. We went in there and we drew the plan, working in partnership with Pete and we looked at how each store is different in terms of the demographic and what the consumer profile looks like. I worked closely with Pete on those plans to make sure they work for him as much as they work for us. We used a company called Pivot Interiors to complete the refit and Pete had a previous relationship with Rodney Brooks who owns Pivot Interiors. Again, it’s about the element of trust. So, there’s a lot around relationships as well as the commercial side of better range, better price, better promotions.
How many Go Local stores does Parfetts have?
It has gone up to 1300. That includes Go Local and Go Local Extra. It’s about 350 Go Local Extra and the rest is Go Local. Go Local Extra is starting to grow because we’re starting to attract retailers from other groups, such as Nisa and Londis, with the bigger offer and that’s where the Go Local Extra brand fits perfectly.
What is the geographical reach of the Go Local and Go Local Extra brands?
We go from the northeast, Newcastle, right down to where we’re just about to open our first one in Gloucestershire and then we’re down into Northamptonshire as well. We go as far as Peterborough on the east side of the country. We’re just about to get one into Powys in the near future. For a relatively new player in the market, just moving down south into Birmingham, we are starting to make some real traction.
What expansion plans do you have?
We’ve always said we want to be at 2,000 stores by the end of 2026. That was what I was brought in to do. That was our stated aim. We’re going to be converting well above 200 stores this year. Our ambitions are to grow but we’ll do it in the right way. We’re not just going to go out there and just throw everything at it and kind of just go everywhere, we’ll do it in a methodical way. Once the retailers are getting a great delivery service from us right down into Gloucestershire, we’ll look down further south, maybe into Milton Keynes, Oxfordshire and just keep going. We have a number of leads come through from retailers down in Bournemouth, in London. Unfortunately, we haven’t got that reach yet, but that’s not to say in the future, we won’t. We just want to make sure we do it in the right way and we’re delivering a really good offer and good service to our retailers.
So you had to say no to that store in Bournemouth?
Yes, we’ll just say we’ll be in touch and again, a lot of it comes from word of mouth, but when we have our trade weeks, retailers actually drive up from Bournemouth. When we launched our Birmingham depot, we actually had retailers coming up from Enfield and Bournemouth to come and shop with us.
Would they do that on a regular basis or was it a one-off?
If we’re doing our trade weeks, they will drive up. What happens is they will have relatives in Birmingham or relatives in Liverpool who say you need to come into Parfetts, they have got these prices on and then they will make the effort and drive up.
But in the long term, would you actually prefer to open a depot further south?
The party line would be we’re always looking at opportunity. We’ve opened Birmingham only a year ago, so, we will make sure that goes well but we’re always looking at the next steps.
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