MJ's Premier, Royton

With its tall windows and shiny bright fascia, you can’t miss MJ’s Premier on Richmond Avenue in Royton, Lancashire. Externally, the shop epitomises everything you would expect of a modern convenience store, with digital screens in the windows and LED backlit signs. But what also stands out on the store’s exterior is its commitment to the local community, with a humble message either side of the entrance’s automatic sliding door stating: ‘Proud to serve Royton’.

Even though a lot has changed at the former 700sq ft store since an extensive refit and expansion into a modern 2,000sqft store last September, the key focus has stayed the same. The store’s number one priority is its customers and how to best serve them.

Because of its location in the centre of a residential area, the store attracts a lot of top-up customers who visit on a regular basis, sometimes even more than once in the same day. So it is no surprise that so many of the customers are familiar with its seven members of staff and owner, Justin Whittaker.

Justin has run the store since he was just 17 years old, when he took over the family business from his father. His vision to transform the store took six years to realise, but in 2015 he finally got planning permission after buying the land to enable expansion.

Since the store underwent the refit last year, it has seen sales go through the roof, up 20% year-on-year, while also attracting new customers.

The driving force behind the refit was to make the store larger so that it was better equipped to compete with some of the more innovative stores around and keep up with the ever-changing retail landscape. As the market continues to see the lines that separated the discount, convenience, supermarket and food service sectors blur into one, customers’ missions have changed.

Justin has a very clear ethos with his store: he wants to offer his customers big deals on big brands, while he has also designated areas targeting the most popular shopper missions: food-to-go, big night in and meals for tonight.

On first entering the store, this philosophy is immediately clear, with shelf-ends tipped with ‘Amazing Value’ messaging fronted with big brand products and a small food to go area with ‘Grab A Bite To Eat’ signage welcoming shoppers.

Food to go

The food to go area includes a hot food zone aimed at breakfast and lunch times and is restocked with freshly-prepared food in the morning and midday. The area is complemented by a Jack’s Beans coffee machine. As a result, Justin has seen an uplift in customers who are looking for food to go options. He also notes that shoppers who used to just pop in for their tobacco products and a newspaper are now buying an item of food to enjoy on the go and a coffee, taking basket spend to new highs. This has been driven by a breakfast meal deal of £3 for a bap and a regular hot drink.

Justin is currently looking into expanding the store’s meal offers by designing an evening meal time option on chilled and frozen.

Zonal design

The store has a ‘macro-space’ design that offers customers more aisle room and improved navigation, with clear category headings throughout the store.

Justin says: “In the past, customers were often unaware that we sold medicines and hygiene products, but since the category was clearly signposted and moved from behind the counter to near the till, sales have grown by 70%.” 

Justin believes strongly in high impact. One signposted area is ‘Big Night In’, where round pound items are prominently placed to encourage impulse buys. Justin believes in offering multiple facings of the key top-selling lines rather than lots of different variants, because he believes it makes the fixture stand out more and look more abundantly stocked.

The store has two metres of confectionery, offering a larger range of £1 PMP tablet-sized bars of chocolate rather than single serve bars, as Justin says shoppers want bigger products for decent prices as opposed to smaller portions – a move which has been vindicated by a 36% uplift in confectionery sales since the refit.

Justin has replaced a lot of his single packs of crisps for bigger sized bags and multipacks for £1 and £2. The same goes for soft drinks with fewer single serve cans and more multi-packs and large bottles of soft drinks. This ties in with the store’s ‘big brands and big value’ message, reflected in the store’s 17 promotional bays.

Wherever you look in this eye-catching Premier store it is obvious that the design has been planned innovatively from start to finish. There is a table top freezer that can be changed to a fridge on demand in the middle of the store that is used to promote meal ideas and special promotions. One offer on frozen chicken dippers saw Justin sell 14 cases in just two weeks, compared to the three or four he would usually get through in the same period.

The store has a five-metre-long chilled and dairy section and runs cross promotions on frozen and chilled products to inspire customers to match items up to make a meal for tonight. In just shy of one year, MJ’s has grown sales of frozen by a healthy 44%.

One of the store’s other success stories has been the introduction of its designated ‘Kids Zone’. With a self-service slushy machine that makes 70% margin and several deals on confectionery in one location, school children are often seen populating the space. After the slushy machine’s triumph, Justin is considering offering either an ice cream or milkshake self-service solution. 

Justin credits Booker with helping him to maximise the store’s potential. He says: “The support from Booker has been amazing, from help with merchandising the store to expert advice. I don’t think retailers could survive without being a part of a symbol group today, the support and guidance they provide is invaluable.”

As far as the future goes, he is not resting on his laurels and aims to continually adapt the shop and its offer. “There won’t be any structural changes for quite some time, but the store is re-merchandised on a bi-weekly basis and I am sure we will continue to re-merchandise extensively in the future in order to keep up with consumer trends,” he says. “We are looking to evolve all the time.”

From having a clear understanding of what his customers want and a clear policy on delivering it, Justin has definitely provided the local community of Royton with a convenience store to be proud of.