Small stores progress with display ban plans

With just seven months to go, preparations for the tobacco display ban are in full swing, retailers report.

Many stores, such as Dean Holborn’s in Redhill, Surrey, which have secured JTI funding, have already had their gantries retrofitted with rails in readiness for the addition of sliding doors prior to 6 April.

The work of fitting doors is set to commence in Scotland next month, with stores in England and Wales to follow, JTI head of sales Andy Stevens said. JTI has committed to covering up 13,759 gantries in total.

Premier retailer Steve Archer, who has already fitted an overhead Severtab unit in his Biddulph store in Stoke on Trent, is having a JTI gantry with sliding doors fitted in his larger Porthill Premier.

“The frame was fitted in August and sliding doors will be added in a few months. There will be four sliding doors and the gantry will be remerchandised with JTI brands in the areas which will be exposed when they are opened,” he said.

Imperial Tobacco is also implementing a two-step conversion process. It recently announced that increased investment had enabled it to push back the date from which it would start to fit doors, to January 2015. The move would allow retailers to make the most of open displays for longer, a spokesman said.

“Our team of installers will visit retailers from September to begin the installation of the door frames. The doors themselves will then be installed during a second visit as close to the implementation date as possible,” Imperial head of sales Martin Goodall added.

Stores not receiving manufacturer-funded displays are also readying themselves. Jamie Keshwara, who owns two Nisa stores and a newsagents in Peterborough with brother Anish, has asked JTI and Imperial to sign over his gantries so he can implement his own solutions. “I’m interested in a vending solution and plan to visit stores in Ireland for research,” he said.