About Bargain Booze Ltd… what makes the company tick?
History
Bargain Booze started back in 1981, but really started to grow into the company we know today in 1988, when it first franchised its concept across a small group of just 16 shops. Needless to say, the company has never looked back.
In the first 10 years after becoming a franchise operation, Bargain Booze grew to a group of over 165 shops.
Building on these strong foundations, the company then started to actively recruit members from outside its North-West heartland.
The company went from strength-to-strength. There are now over 600 stores in the group. To date Bargain Booze stores have opened as far South as Brighton and as far North as Carlisle. In addition there are Bargain Booze shops in both the North and the South of Wales.
Our Retail Fascias – Our Unique Route to Market
Bargain Booze
Bargain Booze stores are – as the name would suggest – driven by a range of discounted alcohol products. All the big brands are featured within a retail promotional package that typically offers between 200 and 300 different deals.
Where space allows there are also additional product categories such as a small amount of distress ambient grocery, newspapers and magazines, greetings cards and so on – essentially Bargain Booze stores do exactly what it says on the sign… they sell booze cheaply.
All the alcohol deals in store are geared towards increasing the customers’ purchases. This means good value for the customer, and good turnover for the franchisee. Everyone wins!
The bright and aggressive point–of–sale material, with its humorous ‘comic book’ style focuses on the savings that the customer can make by buying more. Why buy just a few cans when there’s a deal on six or eight? Why buy just eight when there is a deal on a full case?!
The merchandising of the store reflects the philosophy of ‘the more you buy, the more you save’. Top–selling lines of beer are floor stacked in full cases and everything points the customer to bulk–buying.
Importantly though, there is a keen focus on responsible retailing of alcohol. The customer can save more when they buy more but that doesn’t necessarily mean they should drink more in one sitting. Point of sale material warning of the dangers of binge drinking and encouraging sensible consumption are displayed in every store and featured on all advertising.
Bargain Booze Select Convenience
Bargain Booze Select Convenience stores offer the consumer a full convenience store package. The stores have a premium quality and modern bright shopping environment in which the customer can do his or her entire weekly shop. Importantly, the retail offering is driven by the aggressive pricing and powerful marketing of the Bargain Booze licensed package.
Thorougoods
Thorougoods stores are smaller CTN stores. They are ideal for village locations or for smaller ‘local’ stores offering consumers quality and value on their doorstep. They are not as turnover–driven as Bargain Booze and, in fact, they are focused more on achieving a broader mix of business. A wider range of product categories is typically available in a Thorougoods store than is available in a normal Bargain Booze. Newspapers, Magazines, ambient grocery and so on all play a vital role in maintaining the profitability of the Thorougoods outlets.
Thorougoods Select Convenience
The Thorougoods Select Convenience retail concept takes the powerful and highly credible convenience ‘Select Convenience’ non–licensed offering of the Bargain Booze Select Convenience stores and powers it with the bright and friendly ‘quality & value’ Thorougoods offering instead of the aggressive heavily–discounted alcohol offering of Bargain Booze.
The Team
Bargain Booze operates a dedicated Head Office that supports all the stores in the group. There are over 250 people employed at Head Office/ Distribution to support the franchise group.
The team is headed by a number of senior managers that in turn are led by Joint Managing Directors Matthew Hughes and Tim Stanley with Finance Director Peter Hodgson, Trading Director Keith Webb, Logistics Director Peter Dockerty and Commercial Director Mark Crabtree.
The company runs two distribution centres – one in Newcastle–under–Lyme in Staffordshire, and another in Crewe, Cheshire.
Service to our Franchisees
Each and every store benefits from being able to have up to two deliveries a week containing all the products necessary to run a successful Bargain Booze or Thorougoods shop. All licensed products, confectionery, snacks, soft drinks, tobacco and a tight well controlled range of distress ambient grocery are catered for from these two distribution centres. The company runs over 60 dedicated vehicles carrying out over 120 runs every day. Stores are provided with an estimated delivery time the day before the order arrives.
Bargain Booze Select Convenience and Thorougoods Select Convenience stores also benefit from third–party supply for convenience goods with terms that allow the stores to provide a retail offering that competes with other major convenience store operators.
The full promotional retail pricing package is administered through the custom designed EPoS till system. All prices and deals are downloaded direct from Head Office – with no need for retailers to work from a PLOF book or go through the time consuming process of setting up codes and prices themselves: Bargain Booze Head Office acts as a ‘back office’ for every single shop in the group.
Head Office also has:
- A dedicated Buying team that negotiates the all–important deals and put together the promotional packages for the stores;
- A Marketing department that is responsible for all advertising – including the bright and distinctive point of sale, radio, press and television advertising;
- The Licensing Department helps each franchisee plot their way through the legal minefield of gaining a new premises licence or transferring an existing one;
- Planning which designs the layouts for each store and liaise with shop–fitters;
- Retail Development is the first point of contact for potential new franchisees and for existing group members wanting to open another shop; and also,
- Dedicated merchandising teams that help to realise the full potential of new stores opening in the group…
Franchisees attend promotional update meetings for each and every one of the ten promotional periods in their calendar. These meetings are an important part of the group’s success. Presentations are made by representatives from each department giving full insight into the promotional package for the next period and also information vital to the successful running of the shops. The meetings also offer a unique opportunity to meet with senior management of the company and to exchange ideas and feelings with other franchise members.
The Future
Bargain Booze, Bargain Booze Select Convenience, Thorougoods and Thorougoods Select Convenience already have a reputation for retail excellence, backed by strong systems and distribution. The company is truly one of the biggest players on the national stage and as a formidable presence in the marketplace the company is second to none.
For a future in retail excellence, the future is Bargain Booze!
