Co-op Opens Third ‘On The Go’ Store

 

After the launch of its new ‘on the go’ micro store format over the summer, Co-op has opened a third site in Aylesbury.

The new concept focuses on serving food ‘on-the-go’, offering breakfast, lunch and dinner in new formats, from traditional meal deals to the inclusion of a hot food counter and deli-inspired selections.

The Aylesbury store follows launches in Solihull High Street and Altrincham’s Stamford Quarter, with the retailer previously stating that it aims to roll out to several hundred sites over the next two to three years.

At less than 600 sq. ft., the latest store takes cues from around the world to meet consumer demand for fast, food-for-now options throughout the day.
Between 7am-7pm, the outlet on Aylesbury High Street will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner, with online home delivery of hot food also available in the evening via Co-op’s quick commerce partners, Just Eat, Deliveroo and Uber Eats.

Gary Williams, Co-op Director of Store Optimisation, said: “We are delighted to grow our ‘on-the-go’ concept with the unveiling of our Aylesbury store. We continually look for new ways to get closer to our customers and deliver added convenience.

“Our new concept brings together an innovative blend of food-to-go propositions, with freshly prepared products designed to stand out in the high street and serve this vibrant and thriving community. Catering to ‘on-the-go’ meals throughout the day you will find delicious products, quick service, quality and value, and all in a great convenient location.”

The new store format joins Co-op’s traditional convenience stores across the UK, and is one of 50 new or refurbished sites the company is opening before Christmas.

NamNews Implications:

• Being retail, ‘try it & see’ will determine the roll-out rate.
• This simple (and convenient) proposition…
• …in minimal, well-placed space…
• …looks and feels good.
• Well worth watching…

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Grocery Inflation Eases As Supermarkets Ramp Promotions; Tesco And Lidl Make Biggest Share Gains As Asda Continues To Struggle

Worldpanel by Numerator: grocery price inflation slowed to 4.7% over 4 weeks to 2nd November as supermarkets increased the level of promotions ahead of the key Christmas trading period.

Take-home sales up 3.2%, spending on deals up 9.4% vs spending on full-priced goods up 1.8%.

Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Worldpanel: “Retailers are very alive to the financial struggles that some households are facing, not least ahead of this year’s Budget. They’re eager to show how they’re offering shoppers value for money, putting the emphasis on price cuts rather than multibuy offers. It’s not just the Grinch who’s looking for savings, with just shy of 30% of consumer spending at the grocers on promoted items in October, a figure that we expect to go even higher as we get closer to Christmas.”

Worldpanel is predicting record sales for premium lines this year, with the potential to reach more than £1bn in December.

McKevitt: “It’s important to remember that shoppers often look for great value and quality, not just the cheapest product. At Christmas especially, people want to treat themselves, and throughout the cost-of-living crisis, we’ve seen them turning to retailers’ premium own-label lines to do that in a way that’s more affordable.

"Sales of these goods were worth £582m in the latest month, and they are likely to double as Christmas edges nearer, topping £1bn in the month of December for the first time ever.”

Online grocery is the fastest-growing channel, home delivery up 11%
McKevitt: “... existing shoppers value the convenience and make more orders". On average, household online users now buy 3 shops a month, = 61% of their grocery spend.

Ocado had a record 2.1% share (12 weeks to 2nd Nov). At 15.9%, its highest sales growth (4 yrs since April 2021).

Meanwhile, Tesco and Lidl both added half a percentage point of share to their market share positions.

Lidl’s sales up 10.8% (12 week, share now 8.2%).

Tesco 28.2% of market sales up 5.9%.

Sainsbury's sales up 5.2%, share up to 15.7%.

Aldi 10.6% of the market, sales up 4.4%.

Iceland sales up 4.9%

Morrisons sales up 2.3%, market share down from 8.5% to 8.3% ( 0.1 percentage points ahead of Lidl.

Asda’s market share down from 12.6% to 11.6%, sales down 3.9%

Waitrose sales up 3.8%. Co-op sales fell 1.4% (cyber attack)

M&S grocery sales up 8.8%, fastest rate since June.

NamNews Implications:

• As can be seen, retailers are keeping inflation down via promotions.
• Without which, volume would drop off.
• Obviously piling on pressure on those retailers that cannot afford to optimise the mechanic…
• Meanwhile, switchers to premium own-label will prove expensive to win back to brands, inevitably.
• All of which piles increasing pressure on Asda, and to an extent, Morrisons.

Waitrose Unveils New Concept Store For ‘Food Lovers’

Waitrose has opened its first ‘Home of Food Lovers’ concept store as part of its drive to elevate and differentiate its offer in order to stand out from its rivals.

The 27,000 sq. ft. supermarket in Newbury has been selected as a testing ground for several new initiatives and forms part of the grocer’s £1bn investment programme to enhance its existing 317 sites and open new ones. Waitrose noted that once tested with customers, new concepts will be introduced to other shops and become part of the blueprint for new outlets.

The revamped Newbury store features a five-metre Cheese Island, a first for the retailer’s estate, showcasing a curated selection of nearly 100 speciality cheeses. There are also expanded and modernised counters offering a new ‘Meal Maker’ service, where fishmongers and butchers prepare cuts with free rubs and marinades. The area also includes a new Dry-Aged beef counter.

An expanded in-store bakery features a new partnership with premium brand Ole & Steen, which will be rolled out to 35 stores, while the overhauled fruit and veg department focuses on organic, Fairtrade, and regeneratively-farmed produce.

The Newbury store also features 10 new brand partnerships with artisan producers, including Tap Social, Agua De Madre, and The Good Crisp Company.

A new ‘Food Lovers Hub’ offers recipe inspiration, with all ingredients and wine pairings grouped together.

Meanwhile, the delicatessen counter provides a personalised grazing box service and a ‘Fine & Rare’ wine section includes a blast wine chiller that cools bottles to the perfect temperature in minutes.

The supermarket is powered by new technology, including electronic shelf labels (ESLs), cash automation technology, and shelf-edge cameras that help identify stock gaps.

Meanwhile, staff at the Newbury store will be the first to trial a ‘first-to-market’ AI app created by Waitrose, which will provide them with up-to-date product information, enabling them to offer customers a better service.

Responding to either text or voice requests, the app will give shop floor staff answers on product availability and location, nutrition and sustainability, also cooking and recipe recommendations.

“Today is a significant move forward in our strategy to be the undisputed Home of Food Lovers,” said Tina Mitchell, Interim Managing Director for Waitrose.

“We’re deliberately investing in the joy of food – in expert cheesemongers, butchers, and fishmongers, as well as our cafés and bakeries – a strategic choice that champions the in-store experience for our customers.

This vision is backed by our largest-ever tech investment, using AI and new systems to ensure a seamless customer experience, one that has our Partners and their passion for food right at its heart.”

NamNews Implications:

• Waitrose’s best ideas on show in a single outlet.
• Hopefully, rivals’ and suppliers’ store checkers will not outnumber shoppers…

Tesco Bolsters Rapid Delivery Offer With Just Eat Deal

Tesco has agreed a partnership with Just Eat to support the expansion of its on-demand delivery offering in the supermarket and convenience sectors.

The deal will see Just Eat Go, the firm’s white-label delivery service formerly known as Jet Go, support not only Tesco Whoosh but also its One Stop chain and Booker’s symbol brands – Premier, Londis, Budgens and Family Shopper.

Just Eat launched its Delivery-as-a-Service platform offering in June, initially with Co-op. It enables brands to receive customer orders through their own websites and apps while tapping into Just Eat’s technology infrastructure and network of independent couriers to offer on-demand and scheduled deliveries to customers’ homes.

Just Eat Go’s Commercial Director, Tom Baxter, noted that the collaboration with the grocery giant highlighted the flexibility of its fulfilment network.

“Our new partnership with Tesco demonstrates the diverse range of retailers who are utilising our service, from community retailers such as One Stop, to big brand grocers including Tesco Whoosh,” he said.

“With Just Eat Go we empower our partner brands to respond even more quickly to the rising demand for rapid fulfilment, something that will be particularly important as we head towards the busy festive season.”

Tesco also works with Uber Eat’s white-label offering Uber Express and last-mile delivery firm Stuart to deliver Whoosh orders. Last week, it was revealed that Whoosh is starting to offer its customers the opportunity to do full-basket shops by utilising Stuart’s network of car- and van-driving couriers.

During its last financial year, Tesco’s online sales rose by 11.4%, driven primarily by volume growth, including a 2 percentage point contribution from Whoosh after a near 60% year-on-year increase in orders.

In a results call with analysts last month, the group’s CEO, Ken Murphy, said: “It’s now a really meaningful business. It’s now growing at a really rapid rate. It has, we believe, some real competitive advantage that we want to exploit. So, you can see further investment in that. I think there’s quite a long way to go before we would say that model is mature.”

NamNews Implications:

• In a nutshell, Tesco are:
• Growing online
• Increasing speed of quick-response retail
• Outsourcing high-cost fulfilment
• And making it work financially
• All at the expense of rivals

Key Rivals Matching Asda In Price War

While Asda has stated its aim to establish a 5%-10% price gap over its full-range rivals, new data suggests Tesco and Sainsbury’s are making it difficult for the struggling retailer to make progress with its strategy to win back shoppers.

The latest price comparison survey by trade magazine The Grocer, which looks at a basket of 33 everyday items, saw Tesco beat Asda by 54p in last week’s analysis.

Amid recent signs that food inflation is starting to ease, the cost of the selection of goods at Tesco and Sainsbury’s was 11% less month-on-month, while Asda’s was down 0.3% month-on-month

The Grocer noted that Tesco’s win was powered by several deep discounts, with its £81.04 basket featuring 11 price cuts.

Asda’s £81.58 basket offered the lowest price on 13 lines, with its EDLP strategy evident in several areas where it was cheapest without promotions.

Tesco’s selection was 1.4% less than Sainsbury’s (£82.18) and 6.1% cheaper than Morrisons (£86.31), where prices rose by 4.6% month-on-month, the highest of all retailers.

Last month, Asda trumpeted that it was cutting the cost of over 1,000 products as part of its drive to improve its price competitiveness. The retailer noted that the price cuts were intended to help ease the financial pressures currently being faced by many households as they head into the most expensive time of year.

The reductions were in addition to nearly 3,500 Rollback deals currently available in its stores.

Back in March, Asda signalled that it was willing to take a material hit to its profits in a bid to win back shoppers. However, price cuts since then have failed to halt its slide in market share, with Tesco and Sainsbury’s maintaining their momentum and the discounter’s making further gains.

Last month, Asda told suppliers at its annual conference in Leeds that it was launching a reset of its product offer “bay by bay” as it looks to accelerate its turnaround plan, which its Chairman, Allan Leighton, said was “30% complete”.

NamNews Implications:

• The key to price war success is perhaps not so much how shelf prices compare…
• …but how deep a retail rival can afford to go...
• ...and for how long...
• i.e. Tesco & Sainsburys, Aldi & Lidl may be in a better financial position than Asda & Morrisons…

Tesco Ramping Up Whoosh Offer

Tesco’s rapid grocery delivery service, Whoosh, is starting to offer its customers the opportunity to do full-basket shops.

Order sizes for Whoosh deliveries had been restricted by what can be carried on the back of a moped. However, according to trade publication The Grocer, several hundred Tesco stores are seeing the upper limit on order size removed at certain times of day.

The report said that the full-basket offering has been enabled in part by Tesco’s delivery partner Stuart and its network of car- and van-driving couriers.

It is understood that the unrestricted Whoosh order size will typically be available to those customers scheduling for their order to arrive later the same day.

Cornelia Raportaru, the CEO of Stuart, told The Grocer: “If you’re closer to a large Tesco store, you could literally order anything you want.”

She added: “Our strategy has been to push on innovation and do things no one else is doing. One example is large baskets – the appreciation that [shoppers] want to order a large basket for same-day delivery and not have to wait two days. Today in the UK, there’s almost no one except Stuart that has that capability that is cost-effective on all sides and rewarding also for the courier partners.”

Tesco launched Whoosh in 2021, and it is now available in over 1,500 stores, covering around 70% of the UK population.

During its last financial year, Tesco’s online sales rose by 11.4%, driven primarily by volume growth, including a 2ppts contribution from Whoosh after a near 60% year-on-year jump in orders.

In a results call with analysts earlier this month, the group’s CEO, Ken Murphy, said: “It’s now a really meaningful business. It’s now growing at a really rapid rate. It has, we believe, some real competitive advantage that we want to exploit. So, you can see further investment in that. I think there’s quite a long way to go before we would say that model is mature.”

NamNews Implications:

• If the demand is there, ways will be found…
• With the unrestricted facility going to those paying for speedy (same day) delivery…
• …Stuart’s near-unique large basket facility gives Tesco a competitive edge (and Innovator’s advantage) in building on its 11.4% growth in online.
• (An opportunity for suppliers in appropriate categories?)

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Morrisons To Roll Out ESLs Across Supermarket Estate

Morrisons is partnering with VusionGroup to roll out electronic shelf labels (ESLs) across all of its 497 supermarkets.

Whilst Lidl and several convenience store chains have adopted the technology, Morrisons will become the first of the traditional multiples to use ESLs across its core estate.

VusionGroup will install 10.8 million smart ESLs in Morrisons supermarkets to replace old-fashioned paper labels. In addition to providing accurate price and product information, the retailer noted that automating the shelf labelling process will free up staff time to focus on customer service. Meanwhile, the ESLs will ensure its loyalty card offers are instantly communicated to shoppers at the shelf edge.

Morrisons highlighted that the new technology will integrate with its digital shelf-edge cameras to guide staff to product gaps, speeding up shelf replenishment. It will also integrate with e-commerce applications to make online picking easier and more accurate.

The supermarket noted that it plans to work closely with VusionGroup to explore how to leverage the data generated across various initiatives, “identifying new opportunities to enhance store operations and customer experience”.

The rollout of the new digital labelling system across the Morrisons supermarket estate will commence early next year. The project will include an upgrade of the group’s in-store wi-fi infrastructure, delivering an improved in-store experience for its customers and supporting the digital development.

Morrisons stated that the adoption of VusionGroup’s digital labelling solution was the latest initiative in its digital technology programme, with other recent developments including the rollout of shelf-edge cameras, the introduction of a digital task management platform, and trials of AI-powered shopping trolleys.

“As digital innovation reshapes the retail landscape, we’re constantly evaluating new technology that can help us serve customers better,” said Gordon Macpherson, Group Productivity Director of Morrisons.

“We’re excited to be the first large supermarket group in the UK to introduce digital shelf edge labelling across our entire supermarket estate and look forward to rolling out the technology in 2026. This latest investment further underlines our commitment to modernising and digitising our business to deliver an enhanced shopping experience for Morrisons customers.”

Sébastien Fourcy, SEVP EMEA at VusionGroup, added: “This partnership with Morrisons is a cornerstone in our strategic roadmap towards 2027 and exemplifies our commitment to driving transformation at scale.

“By equipping all their supermarkets with our solutions, we’re not only delivering immediate operational benefits, but also laying the foundation for future innovation in omnichannel retail across the UK, which is a key market for us in the EMEA region.”

NamNews Implications:

• Should increase in-store service level, providing staff ‘freed up‘ by ESL will be redeployed in-store.
• Should result in an improved shopping experience.
• Should minimise shopper hesitation via improved shelf price-accuracy,
• Should ensure most shopper-whims/impulse needs are satisfied via on-shelf gap-filling,
• Should time permit, in a race against the clock.

Profits Jump At Lidl GB As It Prepares To Open 1,000th Store

Lidl GB saw significantly improved results in its last financial year due to store expansion, its success in attracting shoppers with low prices, and its loyalty scheme.

During the year to 28 February 2025, the discounter’s revenue climbed 7.9% to £11.7bn after 38 million more customer visits were made to its stores than in the 12 months prior. Lidl noted that it experienced over £400m in direct switching from competitors as well as almost £500m in growth from customer loyalty, totalling an almost £900m increase in turnover.

The growth in shopper numbers and recent investments in its operations drove pre-tax profit up from £43.6m to £156.8m, while operating profit jumped 42.3% to £314.1m.

Lidl noted that it has maintained its position as the fastest-growing bricks & mortar grocer for more than two years, driven by its commitment to low prices and investment in the business. This has included new store openings, as well as improvements to its existing sites and warehouses. The discounter also highlighted that its popular Lidl Plus loyalty scheme was continuing to drive footfall to stores.

Latest Worldpanel by Numerator data shows Lidl now controls 8.2% of the grocery market, edging it closer to overtaking Morrisons, which has a share of 8.3%.

“Our results reflect the momentum we’ve built and the trust shoppers place in us. More households are choosing to shop with us more often, because we continue to deliver on our promise of outstanding quality at the lowest possible prices,” said Ryan McDonnell, Lidl GB CEO.

“Over the last year, we have continued to operate with our discounter efficiency at the heart of everything we do, all the while investing strategically in areas that will benefit our people, suppliers and communities. This continues to set Lidl apart, and I’d like to thank all colleagues for their support this year in driving our strategy forward. The fact that we have maintained the title of fastest-growing bricks-and-mortar supermarket is testament to them.”

Lidl will mark a major milestone next month when it opens its 1,000th store in the UK as it enters its fourth decade in the country. The discounter will open 13 new stores between now and Christmas, with a total of 40 new outlets before the end of its current financial year.

NamNews Implications:

• Lidl continues to prove it is a retailer made for unprecedented times.
• With a loyalty scheme that shows it can play with the Big Boys.
• OK, some of its growth comes via footprint extension…
• …but Lidl results are increasingly showing that suppliers not engaging with them are missing a trick.