Retailer profile: Noel Kavanagh
The talk of the town A high-end fresh focus has set tongues wagging in the Surrey community of Hinchley Wood. We’ve all heard of the X Factor, but when it came to revamping the Kavanagh Group’s 3,000 sq ft Budgens store in the bustling Surrey community of Hinchley Wood, there was only one factor that managing director Noel Kavanagh was concerned with: The T factor for ‘talkability.’ “When it comes to opening a new store or revamping an existing one, ‘talkability’ is everything,” Noel says. “While a good refit will undoubtedly result in existing shoppers visiting more often and spending more on each visit; a great talkability factor will also see you attract entirely new shoppers, and we’ve certainly achieved that at Hinchley Wood,” he says. And that it has. In fact, following a “transformational” refit carried out in the summer of 2021, Hinchley Wood’s Budgens store is now the talk of the town. “We bought the store back in 2015 and we carried out a refresh in 2016 but this was the refit that the store had been waiting for,” Noel explains. “After almost six years of brisk trading, the store was starting to look and feel a little tired and in need of a fresh new look and focus. “We had a very clear vision for how we wanted the store to look that centred around brightness, premiumisation and a much greater emphasis on fresh foods in a bid to improve sales and margins. “We wanted to create a high-end market-style feel that would elevate the fresh food aisle and make the whole zone far more appealing to shop.” The refit took approximately two weeks, including a four-day closure in which new floors, ceilings LED lighting and a host of new fresh and chilled display cabinets were added. (The
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upgrades to LED lighting and more energy efficient chillers also helped to slash the store’s carbon footprint by 25%.) “Prior to the refit we had a low-level refrigeration unit down the main aisle but we took that out and opened the aisle up to increase that all important sense of space and light.” Noel’s vision of a premium market-style feel was also achieved with new off-shelf displays to whip up greater instore theatre, as-well-as specialised shelving in the produce area designed to help the store to display more loose fruit and vegetables. “The off-shelf displays have allowed us to introduce greater in-store theatre with quirky lines such as French onions aswell-as interesting local ones such as tomatoes for example, which we displayed in beautiful baskets on the shop floor in the summer months. Volume 12: February 2022
