More than a third of Safeway's shops have been reformatted, and four second-generation megastores have opened. The retailer also says that customer response to the 900 new products it has launched this year, many of them in fresh categories, has been 'excellent'.

The retailer's chief executive, Carlos Criado-Perez, said: 'Despite carrying the costs and short-term disruption of store reformatting, we have continued to make product progress by focusing on good margin management and cost control.' Safeway says that 1.5 million customers were attracted to the store following a promotional campaign during the initial refit, and that these customers have stayed loyal. The store's focus now is on increasing the customer's spend.

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