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In the driving seat
Independent retailer Kalyan Akisetty has transformed a former car showroom into a servicefocused convenience store.


There’s a new noise echoing up the streets of Alva: The revving of engines has been replaced with the ringing of tills and swishing off shopping bags thanks to an ambitious refi t by independent retailer Kalyan Akisetty, who has transformed the town’s old car-showroom into a thrumming Budgens convenience store.
“I fi rst came across the site in early 2020 and as soon as I saw it I just knew it was ripe for conversion into a convenience store.
“The opportunities that it presented were huge. For one thing, being a car-showroom meant that it had a large carpark which is a luxury that most of the other stores in this area and our nearest competitor, don’t have.
“Secondly, at the time that I came across the site, the town’s only Post Offi ce had closed down meaning that local shoppers were in sore need of a store that could offer them this crucial service.
“Thirdly, while the area has a high elderly shopper demographic, it was about to get a fresh rush of young families thanks to a new housing development which at the time of purchase, was in the early stages of being built but is now close to completion.


STORE FACTS
Store name: Budgens of Alva, Clackmannanshire, Scotland Store size: 3,000 sq ft Best performing categories: Fresh, chilled, BWS Services: ATM, National Lottery, Paypoint (Post Offi ce coming soon) OpeningHours: 6am-10pm Mon to Sun

“Given all of these factors I knew that I had a real opportunity to offer the shoppers of Alva a fresh, convenient and exciting shopping experience that ticked all the boxes.”
However, with Covid-19 and a national lockdown hitting just a matter of weeks after Kalyan purchased the site, the fi nishing line took a little longer to reach.
“It was a long time in the planning, almost a year before we actually started on the conversion process but that pause gave me a lot of time to sit and think about the plans and work closely with my Budgens Recruitment Development Manager Victoria Nicholson who gave me so many wonderful ideas.”
“Alva is a small village in the central lowlands of Scotland with a population of around 5,000 - many of whom are elderly.
“This high mix of elderly shoppers presented us with an array of unique challenges but also opportunities. “Many elderly shoppers are creatures of habit and I knew that for the store to be the success that I knew it could be, we would have to give those shoppers numerous reasons to change their daily habits and ingrained behaviours and shop with us, rather than our nearest local competitor where they had been shopping for years.”
Well, if reasons were apples, Alva’s shoppers certainly now have a veritable orchard of reasons to visit their new 3,000 sq ft Budgens store – not least of which is its quality-focused 1.2m produce offer.
“The new store opened on 3 December 2021 following an extensive refi t,” Kalyan says. “I bought everything that the team at Budgens recommended as I wanted the range to be as comprehensive as possible to ensure that we offered shoppers everything they needed under one roof giving them more reasons to visit us.”
What that look like is a wide-ranging fresh and chilled offer at the front of the store comprising of more than 12 meters of chilled including a fresh meat offer from Budgens as
well as local butchery items plus a strong deli range and sandwiches.
The smell of new cars has also been swept away by a coffee and pastry-scented breeze thanks to a on-trend food and drinks to go offer including a Costa Express machine, Tango Ice Blast, Jolly Ranchers Slush and Fwip ice cream.
“We know that ranges such as those will prove popular with the young families who are moving into the new housing development just a stone’s-throw away from the store, so it was important to get them in from the start.
“They are actually doing surprisingly well already, generating £250 a week which is not bad for a small town in winter with a predominantly elderly customer base,” Kalyan adds.
Promotions also play a critical role in driving footfall, especially offers on the store’s impressive 6.2m BWS range and thanks to its large glass windows and abundance of natural light, those special offers truly shine.



Kalyan Akisetty, Budgens of Alva, Clackmannanshire
“Natural light is another of the store’s big draws,” Kalyan adds. “As a car showroom, the site always had very large glass windows and that sense of light and space was something I was keen to preserve in the convenience store as it’s actually quite rare.
“Most stores don’t really allow shoppers to see in and rely heavily on artificial light but we wanted to let as much daylight in as possible and allow shoppers to both see in and out.
“We removed all of the old car-show room windows and replaced them with more convenience retail appropriate windows but have ensured that visibility remains very good.”
“Allowing shoppers to see exactly what we have on offer from the street plays a crucial role when it comes to changing those behaviours.”
Service does too and again this is an area into which Kalyan is investing significant time and effort.
“Obviously we have a very strong range but we are also focusing hard on customer service because we want to make shopping with us an experience to remember.
“With the elderly shoppers we help them to navigate the store, we pack their shopping into bags and we carry it out to the car should they need us too.
“I also spend as much time as possible on the shop floor. Those initial weeks after opening are crucial for intelligence gathering and I speak to shoppers as much as possible to find out what they think, what they like and what more they might need.



Kalyan Akisetty, Budgens of Alva, Clackmannanshire
“A couple of shoppers have asked for particular products that we hadn’t been stocking when we first opened and I’ve personally visited the local Booker depot to buy them in for them. Small acts like that add up to big positive impressions.”
A concerted local marketing campaign involving flyers and adverts on the local radio station are also helping to raise awareness of the new store.
“We opened just a few weeks before Christmas so we wanted to do a really big push and by chance I got speaking with a shopper who worked for the local radio station Fourth Valley Radio. He suggested that we run some ads with them which turned out to be a great idea. The station is run as a social enterprise and broadcasts across the Forth Valley area so it really helped to raise our profile.”
And with average basket spend cresting £9 just seven weeks after opening it’s clear that all Kalyan’s hard work is paying off. “Shoppers seem really pleased with what we’ve done here and we are seeing more and more new faces every day which proves that we are tempting them to change their daily behaviours as hoped.”
The addition of a Post Office counter in the spring - along with a new Vape Station fixture are also sure to give new and existing shoppers even more reasons to visit.
Kalyan has also approached the head teachers of the two local schools to offer his assistance with any fundraising or sponsorship opportunities.
“I’m committed to making this a true community store, a place that local shoppers turn to for so much more than just their daily shopping needs,” he adds.
From all of the above, it certainly seems as though he’s on the right track.