South London retailer Kaual Patel takes on multiples with refurbished store and own brand craft beer

South London retailer Kaual Patel has unveiled his newly refurbished store after a major investment that he believes enables him to challenge any of the major supermarkets.

Patel, who has worked with Nisa for more than a decade, has turned the family-owned business into an impressive outlet with the latest fixtures, fittings, services, and products.

The Torridon Convenience Store and Post Office in Catford, which was first opened in 1984 by Kaual’s father, was converted as part of a 10-week refurbishment programme.

“We wanted to raise the bar with this store and give our shoppers everything they need including all the fresh so we can go toe to toe with the supermarkets,” Kaual said.

The store was officially opened last weekend with a ribbon cutting ceremony performed by Eastenders star Jake Wood.

A bespoke feature of the store is the walk-in chilled ‘beer cave’ which houses a vast expanse of beverages within a creatively designed ‘vault’ adding theatre to the site. The facility houses wines and beers as well as a non-alcoholic selection and products from local brewers.

Kaual has also introduced his own brand of craft beer brewed at a local brewery.

New additions to the almost 3,000 sq.ft. store include an extensive Food To Go offering comprising Jolly Rancher soft drinks, F’real, Jack Beans, Rollover and iSqueeze.

Cook freezers have been introduced with a wide choice of premium ready meals available which complements the strong traditional frozen offer also available in store.

“We have historically traded well at the store, but we didn’t have the space we wanted, especially for chilled foods and drinks which is in such growth,” Kaual said.

The expansive Co-op own brand range which features more than 450 lines is also a key offer of the store aiming to give shoppers all their grocery needs in one location.

Bonds refrigeration has been fitted throughout the store providing an excellent design aspect which are also extremely efficient and low maintenance and electronic shelf edge labels have been installed enabling prices to be updated at the touch of a button.

Meanwhile, enormous effort has gone into improving the operational workings in store by changing the layout of the stock room and allowing deliveries to flow easier into store with minimum clutter.

And the new fascia for the store is now dual branded with the existing Torridon Convenience coupled with the Nisa Local name.

“We have seen our customers coming back into the store since we opened at the weekend as well as new faces. To get the numbers up we have to create something unique, and I am very happy with what we have achieved here,” added Kaual.