Marks & Spencer wants a bigger share of food (with the help of Percy Pig) | Business

After two years of declining food sales, Marks & Spencer is struggling with bigger stores, lower prices and family-sized food packaging. And the giant Percy Pigs.

In a newly renovated store in the Hempstead Valley, Kent, the new restaurant manager at the retailers says that "even more fun" will be just as important as better food lines – from where the larger-than-life version of his bestseller Sweet in the Food aisles.

Stuart Machin says that M & S is trying to progress in the extremely tight grocery market by relaxing and attracting more family customers. In addition to the giant Percy, there is a plastic chicken that slides on the press of a button and a neon sign inviting buyers to "use their bread."

"We take our food seriously, but we do not take ourselves too seriously," he says.

The company is also testing larger stores where the full range of more than 6,000 M & S products will be available, with Hempstead being one of the first. At present, the group has only a dozen sites where all these elements are proposed. Most store about 2,000 items, which is minimal, apart from the 25,000 items per store offered by large supermarkets on typical sites.

The family appeal will be an important part of M & S's attempt to sell food online through a £ 750m joint venture with Ocado Delivery Specialist, which will start in September 2020.

If this initiative succeeds, it could give M & S an additional 1% of the food market, according to badysts broker Liberum. This could place him on an equal footing with Waitrose, or even above, who is ousted by Ocado as a food partner.

This would be a huge leap for M & S, which controls only 3.2% of the UK grocery market, according to badysts from Nielsen, behind Aldi and Lidl, as well as large supermarkets, including Tesco and Sainsbury's .

In the Hempstead Valley, M & S is expanding its range of food products by reducing the clothing space to double the size of its food hall, which is growing to almost 1,580 m² (17,000 m²). It widens the aisles so that trollies can be used more easily and add more fresh produce and fresh bakery products, as well as additional basic products, from washing up liquid to deep-frozen vegetables, to some popular brands such as Halo Top ice cream.

Family-size packaging accounts for one-fifth of the range of stores in the Hempstead Valley, compared to about 2% in most M & S grocery stores.

"We want to be more than just special occasions and a fresh meal prepared. Where we have bigger stores, they work well, they are too few, "says Machin.

The goal is to have a store "with the spirit of a supermarket and the soul of a fresh market," he adds.

At least two other larger food stores will open before Christmas and some new food venues could reach an area of ​​2,350 m². The company plans to create 50 new independent food stores over the next three to five years, though not all will be department stores. M & S has more than 1,000 food outlets, including 300 in full-service locations that also sell clothing.

Machin, a veteran of Sainsbury's, Tesco, Asda and Coles in Australia who joined M & S in April 2018 in the newly created role of Director of Food Management, was tasked with reinventing the M & S Food business. S. The president of the company, Archie Norman, said that the chain gave ground to the competitors because it was too slow to innovate, too expensive and burdened by excessive waste.

Last year, M & S reduced short-term promotions, but cut prices on more than 400 of the most popular lines, such as minced beef and bread. For example, a loaf of basic bread costs 75 pints, up from £ 1.15, while a 300-gram block of Cornish Cove ripe cheddar costing £ 3.85 now stands at £ 3 and that cherry tomatoes at £ 1.00 are now worth 65p. Concerted efforts are being made to modernize an aging supply chain to reduce waste and accelerate the introduction of new food product lines.

But can these changes really make a difference by persuading families to switch from large supermarkets such as Sainsbury's or Tesco? According to Mr Machin, the chain is already several percentage points less than Waitrose, currently the UK's eighth largest grocer, and offers better quality food than its larger rivals and puts more emphasis on referrals. ethical of its suppliers.

Putting forward these ethical standards with efforts for sustainability, including reducing the use of plastic, will be part of the response. In Hempstead Valley, for example, the company is testing cardboard containers for mushrooms and tomatoes and removing plastic bags from the baked bread at the store. The quantity of bulk products offered has increased by 40%.

After working at Sainsbury's Hempstead Valley School and returning to run the store in his twenties as a graduate trainee, Machin is well aware of the fact that M & S is surrounded by competitors including a large Tesco, a Lidl, an Aldi, a Sainsbury and a Morrisons.

During its second week of business, the renovated store attracted new customers and persuaded them to fill trollies rather than baskets. Machin says that there are "green shoots" throughout the chain as this increases the amount of goods sold.

Bryan Roberts, director of Global Insights at TCC Global, said: "No matter what you launch and M & S or Waitrose, this does not stop you from resisting the advances of Aldi and Lidl and the current threat of price reduction. "M & S's proud history of innovation and even its reputation for luxury food has been diluted by competition." The places to buy high quality are missing, "says Roberts.

He added that larger stores may be working in select locations, but M & S may be struggling to find enough sites with parking lots and enough space to make a difference. M & S is trying to smile, but how long can it continue?