Store Sees Boost in Sales with Addition of Franchise from Appleby Westward Group Limited Paris Newsletter

A Cornwall store has added a Subway franchise to its retail offer.

The store at Helston, run by Chris and Sue Sharrinton, has introduced Subway to complement its existing successful food-to-go operation and attract a wider customer base.

“We have been looking for some time to add something fresh and different to our food-to-go offer, and we chose Subway as a partner because it is such a strong brand name,” said Chris.

“Subway has a trendy appeal and will attract younger customers to the store, as well as enhancing our overall offer. We have created 300 sq. ft. of space for the Subway operation, and will still be selling our own popular range of hot food, pasties, sausage rolls and bacon baps, alongside cassette sandwiches, ensuring that our existing range is not drastically reduced.”

Chris and Sue worked alongside Appleby Westward for the installation of the Subway offer. Appleby Westward also worked with another of its Retailers, Julian Holliss when he installed the franchise in his petrol forecourt store in Dartmouth.

“We have given the licence to trade in the store to a very experienced Subway operator, and it will trade the same hours as the store,” said Chris. “We are confident it will attract new customers to the store and enhance our offer, introducing a strong retail brand the major multiples cannot offer.”

Chris and Sue plan to introduce another large brand offer to their customers in September with the launch of a Costa Express in store. “Customers are shopping more and more for brands which they can trust and SPAR, Subway and Costa are all large brands which we feel can all work together, providing a complete offer,” he said.

They have been encouraged by results so far ‘Although the Subway has only been trading a few weeks we can see that it has improved the overall offer that the store has in many respects. We see far more “younger” customers who would not normally shop in SPAR, they now see it as trendy and are quite surprised what we have to offer.’

‘Around 50% of the Subway customers also buy other products from us and if this is just one item that can add up to a lot of extra turnover per week. We have noticed that our off-license sales have increased and we believe that this is due to this extra footfall especially with the evening trade.’

‘With regards to our existing hot food and sandwiches we have seen a tail off in sales of about 20% but the profit on that is more than compensated by extra sales of product in the store and the extra footfall that the Subway brings.’

‘As I have said this is still early days but we are confident that this is the right partnership to have, it will grow and safeguard the future of the store. This would not be for every store within SPAR but there are a lot of stores out there that this would enhance. SPAR is a strong brand, Subway is a strong brand and by working together we can both prosper.’

Subway has more than 36,000 independently-owned stores in 100 countries, operated by franchisees and the UK is the largest market outside North America with over 1,425 outlets.

Earlier this year, the company announced plans to increase the number of Subway stores in the UK and Ireland to 2,000 over the next three years, creating around 6,000 new jobs.