Conviviality Retail, the franchised off-licence and convenience store brands trading primarily under the Bargain Booze fascia, has posted an update on trading for the year ended 26 April 2015.
This year has seen its strategy of revitalising its brands, Bargain Booze and Wine Rack, alongside infrastructure investment, gaining traction with customers and Franchisees. Revenues are expected to be above last year at approximately £364m (in 2013/14, revenue was at £355.7m) despite the phasing of new store openings being later than expected in the year and the continued heavy discounting and competition in the market.
One of the retailer‘s key objectives over the last year was to help Franchisee partners to build more profitable and successful businesses. This is “succeeding” with 21 existing Franchisees opening additional stores and Conviviality has welcomed 35 new Franchisees into the Group. Franchisees now have the opportunity to earn £14,000 per store more than two years ago, through a consistent improvement in retail margin and the benefits of the Franchisee share scheme, which enables Franchisees to be awarded up to 3,500 shares per store for achieving annual standards targets. As a result we have a good pipeline of stores and opportunities to deliver during 2015/16.
To support Franchisees further and to help them to attract and retain more customers, there has also been investment into stores‘ fascias, the modernisation of brands and becoming more connected with customers through the use of social media and digital marketing. In April, Conviviality piloted its Click and Collect service and its app, which launched in December 2014, achieved over 19,500 downloads and 23,000 redemptions, “strengthening customer retention.”
Diana Hunter, CEO of Conviviality, said:
“2014/15 has been a year of solid progress for Conviviality and we are pleased with everything that has been achieved. The significant changes we have implemented over the last two years ensure we are well positioned to drive growth into the business and the Board looks to the future with confidence. I would like to recognise the excellent collaboration of all of our employees, our Franchisees and Suppliers in helping drive this solid performance.”
