Booths supermarkets achieves valuable retail planning efficiencies with StoreSpace®

Booths has 27 grocery stores across the North West of England offering ‘the best food and drink available in attractive stores with first class assistants’, a tradition that dates back to the first store which opened in Blackpool in 1847.

Booths has been using StoreSpace® since 2019 and it is now embedded into their store development processes where it is used to manage category level space. All the physical assets within a store are planned using the intelligent blocks within the StoreSpace® library, so they can be quickly updated and reported on when needed.

The customer experience is critical to Booths’ approach where beautiful architecturally award-winning buildings such as the train station at Windemere are used to house their shops. As a result, delivering a consistent experience is challenging for the store development team, because each floor plan is unique; and this is where StoreSpace® adds value as it is very quick and easy to update floorplans using a consistent block library and an intuitive process.

Valuable store data used across the business

As Retail Development Space Planner, Matt Thomas reports,

“I’m a big advocate for StoreSpace®, it certainly benefits me and my team from a planning perspective. While the model store functionality shows which categories are under or over spaced and using this knowledge I can increase the space and range, resulting in improved store performance.”

As Booths populates StoreSpace® with more stores, the information on the fixtures and equipment is being used by other departments. For example a team installing a new workforce management system needed to know the exact size of the plant rooms and warehouses contained with StoreSpace®. While information on light fittings and equipment generated in a major energy efficiency programme are being catalogued within StoreSpace® for future use.

Simplifying signage production

Furthermore, the instore signage has been added to the floor plans, with accurate dimensions and information on the content, which will be valuable when the signs are next updated. Explaining the value of using StoreSpace across the business, Matt says,

“From September, store managers will have access to StoreSpace® via tablets and mobile phones so they can help confirm store plans are correct requesting correction when needed, which means all our stores will be fully compliant with head office plans.”

Customer success and customer satisfaction

“StoreSpace Insights training was a great way to get started and the more I use StoreSpace® the more efficient I become. But it is the monthly Customer Success meetings that I have found really useful, where (StoreSpace Insights Head of Client Services) Richard Burford brings new ideas to each meeting. Whether it is demonstrating new functionality or prompting ideas for new ways of working, he ensures that we get the most out of StoreSpace®. For example in a recent meeting he explained how StoreSpace® could be used for managing the forthcoming High Fat Sugar and Salt legislation when we will need to know exactly where everything is in our stores.” Matt concludes

StoreSpace® results in improved store performance

“I’m a big advocate for StoreSpace®, it certainly benefits me and my team from a planning perspective. While the model store functionality shows which categories are under or over spaced and using this knowledge I can increase the space and range, resulting in improved store performance.” Booths Retail Development Space Planner, Matt Thomas