Refitting for local community proves a winner for Pocklington forecourt

Changing its focus from commuters to local people, as a result of the pandemic-related shopping patterns, has led to excellent sales figures for a flagship Nisa Local forecourt store in Pocklington.

Pocklington Services made a suite of changes to the store after the Covid-19 outbreak caused dramatic drop in commuter footfall, but at the same time, increased custom from local people who turned to the store for their groceries.

Umar Patel, director at Brookfield Retail Limited, who own the East Yorkshire site, said the whole focus of the store has changed in response to customer demand, which has seen sales rising by almost 75 per cent.

“When lockdown happened last year, local people started coming into the store because they saw that they didn’t have to queue, and they felt safe. We were getting lots of new customers and they wanted good quality, fresh products,” he said.

“The promotions worked well but we knew if we wanted to retain the new customers, we needed to give them a store and a range that they loved.”

A substantial investment has now been made in the store with a raft of key changes to allow more chilled and frozen products to be added to the range and the grocery range has also been expanded with gondolas increased in height to add additional shelves to each bay.

A dedicated food to go area has been created close to the entrance comprising Costa Coffee, Tango Ice Blast, F‘wip, Rustlers, Ringtons Tea, free water refills and hot food cabinets.

New signage has been installed outside, with a 3D white Nisa Local sign above the entrance and new fascia panels with Nisa Local, Co-op, Subway and Costa Express branding to create an eye-catching display for approaching traffic.

The store now boasts more than 300 Co-op own brand lines across chilled and frozen and a further 500 in ambient and premium frozen range Gourmade is also available and selling well.

“People are using the store as a destination shop now because we are offering them the range that they need. Shoppers are coming in and filling their baskets and since the shop fit-out we have just been getting busier and busier,” Patel said.

“The Nisa team has worked brilliantly on this project and the support we’ve received has been excellent. Together we have created a fantastic store and customer feedback has been great.”