Bestway is celebrating 10 years of the Best-One symbol group, and is expecting the future to be about building business for existing members rather than growing store numbers significantly.

There are currently 950 member stores, accounting for about £130m-worth of annual turnover through direct invoicing, but group director of symbol James Hall told C-Store that it was nearing its preferred number of retail partners.

“We’ve enjoyed organic growth of about 20% every year to date, but we’re not looking to grow Best-One much beyond 1,000 stores,” said Hall. “We have good retailers, and we want to grow with them. We think that with new ranges and better space management, existing retailers can get more out of their stores.”

The group’s new chilled distribution centre in Coventry is to be a key stepping stone in future development, Hall added. The site is running as a central distribution hub for Bestway depots, but will be delivering direct to stores in the new year.

“We’ve been using third-party distributors, but can now take control of it as part of a wider drive to encourage retailers to dig out more space for chilled,” explained Hall. “A third of our promotions concern chilled, but the range we need for retail will be bigger than the range we need for depots so we’re talking to new suppliers and sorting volumes, drop sizes and peak times.”

Further developments include a new premium fascia, in-store TV screens featuring shopper mission-led features and promotions, and tablet-based epos terminals.

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