Monday 25th February 2013
Parasites Just The Medicine For Best-One Retailers
Best-one retailer Noel Conreen has seen volume sales of OTC medicines jump 87 per cent and turnover by160 per cent having introduced a bespoke ‘parasite’ unit.
The healthy year-on-year figures follow Conreen’s trip with other Best-one ‘Ambassadors’ on a Study Tour around some of the best independent retailers in the UK. It was during one appointment that the group, formed to help steer the future direction and strategy of Best-one, found the idea.
“We were in a store in Coventry,” says James Hall, Group Director of Symbol at Bestway. “There was a parasite unit, hooked onto a gondola end, filled with medicines. Everyone loved the concept. So we said, ‘okay, we’ll go away and source, manufacture and supply this thing’.”
The symbol group finalised an agreement with two main suppliers, SHS and GSK, to underwrite the units and agree a convenience-friendly planogram. Participating retailers have been siting them since and the prognosis is good, with many like Conreen seeing an immediate impact. Not only have impulse sales jumped but participating retailers have seen an improvement in shopper queue times, freed up space on their gantries for growth categories such as e-cigarettes and reported no discernible increase in theft.
Conreen, who runs Best-one Ace of Hearts forecourt near Widnes, adds: “The EPoS data shows that the parasite unit is just what the doctor ordered. Over the first 17 days of January compared to the same period in 2012 I sold 87 per cent more in terms of the number of medicine items. In pounds and pence, we’re up a huge 160 per cent.”
Best-one is now rolling the concept out to all its retailers whilst continuing to review the results to identify any slow sellers within the range. It is also exploring the potential to use the units for other categories.