12 | The Grocer | 10 August 2019 Get the full story at thegrocer.co.uk
analysis m&s
M&S Hempstead Valley has been revamped to boost basket value
W
ith their joint ven-
ture completed this
week, M&S has about a
year before it goes online with
Ocado, where shoppers fill
virtual trolleys, not baskets.
So it’s timely that M&S also
this week showcased probably
its most important effort so far
in getting more people to fill a
trolley in stores.
The revamped Hempstead
Valley Food Hall is the first
step in a “store renewal pro-
gramme”, according to M&S
Food MD Stuart Machin.
So can it attract more families
for the full weekly shop?
The range has gone from
4,900 lines to M&S’s full 6,000,
while the store footprint has
grown from 9,500 to 16,900 sq
ft. The aisles are exceptionally
wide, giving the whole place a
generous, airy feel.
The aim was a supermarket
with the “soul of a fresh mar-
ket” according to Machin, and
the fresh fruit & veg section,
where you arrive first, is indeed
reminiscent of a street market.
Veg sits in wooden boxes on
the floor, how a trader might
arrange it around a stall.
Range
There are 50% more fresh prod-
ucts and 40% more loose lines,
with paper bags for weigh-
ing and labelling at one of two
weighing stations.
Many of the packaged lines,
too, such as Santini tomatoes,
are plastic-free. Instead they’re
in cardboard punnets, with a
large sign barking the price of
60p per 100g, driving home two
of the store’s ‘hero messages’:
sustainability and value.
And the store does drive them
Will families fill a trolley at
M&S’s new-format store?
home, along with a third: qual-
ity. Everywhere are signs begin-
ning: ‘This is not just...’
Bakery, immediately behind
fresh produce, is one of several
sections to double its footprint,
as is frozen, where there are
bigger freezers and pack sizes.
Elsewhere there’s a flower
section, a deli cheese section,
a sizeable wine department, a
household, toiletries and baby
aisle, and even a pet section.
But is it enough? A woman
casually wandering in with a
full trolley from Sainsbury’s
next door seems to suggest an
answer. Others are carrying
Sainsbury’s bags.
This Food Hall is still smallSteve Farrell
by supermarket standards,
about the size of a big Co-op.
The range remains dwarfed
by Tesco’s 40,000, and is still
heavily reliant on own label. If
your family shop includes, say,
Nutella, it’s going to have to be
an M&S chocolate spread.
The Hempstead Valley site
was chosen for its proximity
not only to Sainsbury’s but also
nearby Tesco, Asda, Morrisons
and Aldi stores. “We knew the
catchment would create an
opportunity to attract more
family shoppers,” says Machin.
If the range won’t draw them
away entirely from rivals, some-
thing else may tempt them to
spend less there and more here.
It is simply a pleasant shopping
experience. Checkout is utterly
painless. Four of six aisles are
staffed, making for queues of nomore than one or two shoppers
at each. Neither is there a queue
for the nine self-checkouts.
Scan and shop is new, as are
mini trolleys to keep kids happy
while parents push a big one.
And nearly everyone seems
to be pushing a loaded trolley,
though baskets are available.
For a retailer whose aver-
age basket value analysts have
put at £13, it could be a break-
through, provided there is
capacity in the estate to suf-
ficiently roll it out. Machin
acknowledges “many of our
stores are small”.
But he insists: “We have
reviewed our store estate and
know we have an opportunity
to create bigger, better, fresher
food stores.”
Hempstead Valley seems a
good prototype for that aim.A TV screen in frozen and a neon
‘eat in colour’ sign in bakery help
push the ‘hero message’ of quality