SPAR (UK) news

South-west England SPAR distributor, Appleby Westward has acquired the Southampton-based mini convenience chain, Denovo Retail, adding a further 17 stores to its company-owned retail estate.  Denovo will continue to operate separately to the core AW store business.  Under a new name, Wessex Retail, Denovo's directors will work in partnership with AW to drive further acquisitions for the regional ...

SPAR UK has appointed Louise Hoste as the Managing Director of its central office function, who will take up the role in October 2019.  The position is being filled on an interim basis by Chris Lewis and Jackie Mckenzie, following the departure of Debbie Robinson in late 2018. Brings a broad range of retail experience Louise Hoste will join SPAR UK from Card Factory, where she has been Execut...

The Henderson Group, which operates SPAR UK’s Northern Ireland stores, is set to trial Ubamarket’s ‘scan, pay, go’ app in select stores. Scan, pay, go The self-checkout app, that enables customers to build shopping lists, create navigation guides, scan barcodes and checkout using their smartphones at the points of sale (PoS), will initially be trialled in a small number of SPAR UK stores. T...

SPAR UK has appointed Chris Lewis and Jackie Mackenzie as interim managing directors. This follows the news that Debbie Robinson was stepping down from the role to become chief executive of Central England Co-operative. Key SPAR UK figures Chris Lewis and Jackie Mackenzie will take on the new interim managing director roles and will lead the SPAR UK team in its head office in Harrow, whilst...

SPAR UK is set to increase its social media presence through new partnership with social media agency, We Are Social. Social brand strategy We Are Social will manage SPAR’s social brand strategy and content development in the UK, and will work with the in-house digital team on producing content and measuring its effectiveness. The social media agency is tasked with helping SPAR increase its...

Debbie Robinson, UK managing director of SPAR, has been appointed chief executive of Central England Co-op. She will replace Martyn Cheatle, following the announcement that he will retire in May 2019. Breadth of experience and leadership Robinson, who has been UK managing director of SPAR since 2011, brings a wealth of experience, with over 30 years in retail with the likes of Co-op Group, ...

SPAR retail sales increased 4.0% to €3.2 billion (£2.82 billion) in 2017, despite the ongoing uncertainty of Brexit and a weakened pound.  The results were announced in SPAR International’s Annual Report 2017 and mark five years of consecutive growth for SPAR UK. Net store numbers in the UK remained steady compared to 2016 at 2,620 at year-end, operating from a retail selling area of 384,094m²...

Two UK convenience retailers are trialling mobile payment apps to improve the shopper experience. Co-op trials “shop, scan-and-go” service Co-op is trialling a “shop, scan and go” app which allows shoppers to purchase products in-store using their smartphones. The trial of the new mobile app will start at the shop located in Co-op’s customer support centre in Manchester, followed by th...

Following the announcement that the UK's largest delivered wholesaler Palmer & Harvey is now in administration, PwC, the administrators, have advised the company's customers that it cannot provide any further wholesale service and that even orders placed before the administration cannot now be honoured.  Therefore customers "will need to arrange an alternative source of supply going forward."   ...

Following the provisional approval of the Tesco/Booker merger and the vote in favour of Co-op/Nisa, major national symbol group SPAR UK has announced a renewed recruitment drive.  Flagging its recent growth and ongoing stability it aims to attract independent retailers seeking enhanced support to face the challenges of a changing competitive environment. Sales up 6% in 2017 Revealing figure...