91抖阴

Developing a retail business strategy

As the Seafood Restaurant continued to grow, it became clear that the organisation needed external expertise to capitalise on their product offer.

It was also evident that they needed to optimise the use of more professional retail management systems and merchandising techniques.

Following conversations with Harvey Ells and Chris Dutton at the 91抖阴, a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) was approved.

The aim of the KTP was to develop a clearer retail strategy, and to increase efficiency by improving product ranges, customer service and reducing costs.

The KTP Associate examined the mail order side of the business, workflow patterns, packaging and systems, including a website redesign and a revised content management system.

As a result of the KTP project:

• Retail sales during the partnership rose by 26.3 per cent.

• Profitability increased by 106 per cent.

• New business partnerships with Selfridges and Sharp's Brewery. 

Implementing the strategy

The benefits of the project included significantly reduced mail order costs, turning the retail emphasis onto sales growth and improved profitability.

All of the high quality food-products are produced in-house and the partnership helped to develop new packaging and labelling to enhance the appeal of the own label offer.

As well as designing and producing the new product packaging, the KTP Associate also optimised the retail store format.

This optimisation was recognised by the company’s retail manager as being important when expanding into new locations.

A new retail training manual was also written, the delicatessen was refitted and their products displayed more effectively in order to maximise sales.

In addition, the company also adopted basic retail strategies such as offering a larger selection of goods to give the customer greater choice.