The new Budgens brand concept has been well-received by target customers, according to research released by Musgrave.

A ‘before and after’ survey of 300 shoppers at the company-owned store in Crouch End, North London, showed that it was making progress in the battle for lucrative top-up shoppers, with the number of items purchased per visit nearly doubling from five to nine, and the average visit frequency increasing to three times a week.

According to the research, 98% of shoppers surveyed think the Crouch End store is great for top-up shopping (up 6% since the refit); 97% think it is a pleasure to shop at Budgens (up 12%); and 87% said they would choose Budgens because it sold more locally-sourced products.

The Budgens brand was repositioned in September last year and three company-owned concept stores have since been remodelled according to the new principles, at Broadstone in Dorset, Byfleet in Surrey, and Crouch End.

The new positioning is based on “everyday discovery at the heart of local life” with a strong focus on fresh and local food, and key shopper missions. Budgens was recently named Best Top-Up Convenience Retailer at HIM’s CTP Awards.

Budgens director Mike Baker said: “We could see from all three stores that early results were showing success, from increases in footfall to an increase in fresh sales, but we needed to know how shoppers were responding to the brand and if the new concept was changing behaviour in the way we expected.

“Our before and after survey of shoppers in Crouch End tells us they are happy with our new concept store and they’ve really responded well to the changes we’ve put in place.”

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