Peter Robinson, a new One Stop franchisee, has made the switch to the symbol group in style, launching three stores on the same day.
Robinson, who owns five stores in Pembrokeshire, says a meeting with an enthusiastic franchise holder at a London awards ceremony made him think about joining One Stop. “Sunder Sandher was telling me how much difference One Stop had made to his business in the West Midlands. I was looking for new possibilities and decided to investigate further,” he said.
Robinson then visited several franchise stores in South Wales, and the veteran retailer was impressed with the store standards.
“Most symbol groups’ store standards vary tremendously, depending on how recently the store has been refreshed,” he said. “I wanted to see if that was the same with One Stop. What I found was that they were all good stores in great condition, and all maintaining strong displays, which was very encouraging.”
He found One Stop’s IT and EPoS systems to be ‘first class’, and the on-going promotions and offers have been another attraction. “I think the store standards are superb and the deals unbeatable,” he said. “The basic promotions; day in, day out, are all very competitive.”
Robinson has refitted three stores in a month, and he found the conversion from his previous group to One Stop simple.
“Previously, we had our own till system that we customised, whereas with One Stop you have their IT system so it’s a different way of working,” he said. “It’s a different discipline and that’s the attraction for me, as a multiple operator. I can replicate all these processes across all three stores, which enables me to work efficiently.”
Robinson still owns the family store in Pembroke where he was born and in which he started working in 1985, helping out his parents. The premises have been in the family for 55 years. The East End Square store will now become a 1,300sq ft One Stop store and stores in Albion Square Pembroke Dock and Charles Street, Milford Haven will complete his triple Pembrokeshire openings.
The scale of the transformation varies in all three stores, under Peter’s £500,000 makeover, with £150,000 of that invested by One Stop; part of the attractive package offered to franchisees by the convenience store retailer.
One Stop’s Head of Franchise, John Miller said: “Each franchisee receives £50,000 towards a refit of their store. When it comes to multiple openings, they can use it in whichever store they need to make the most investment.
“It’s encouraging to hear how well Peter is doing in such a short space of time. It’s great that we are growing into Pembrokeshire with these first three stores! Peter is really grasping the huge opportunities there are in the area where he can compete on price with any of the larger supermarket stores. Plus, as he’s discovered through his own research, he will have the best availability among independents.”
Robinson concurred: “We are bringing the local post office into our Charles Street store, so we’ll be able to play a really active part in the community, becoming a real hub in the town centre. It may be busy right now but there are some really exciting times ahead and with One Stop’s ‘touch of a button’ systems I can manage all my stores with relative ease.”
And, he is already planning a further expansion of the One Stop brand in the area.
