The big four supermarkets may have enjoyed something of a revival in the past couple of years (after nearly a decade of losing market share to the discounters), but they are not the only retailers to have seen a recent turnaround in fortunes.
After a long period of falling sales and shop closures, many independent greengrocers have reported rising sales and a growing interest in their offering in the past five years. Some parts of the country are seeing a return to the high street, and there are a number of factors driving this shift.
Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, people are becoming more aware of cost, says TV presenter on the BBC’s Eat Well for Less? programme, Chris Bavin. “More and more people are trying to shop savvy and I think independent retailers offer a great opportunity to save money if you eat in season and take advantage of what’s good value at the time.”
Bavin, a former greengrocer, says there is “no getting away” from the fact that certain items are cheaper at a supermarket if they’re on promotion – “sometimes it’s even cheaper than wholesale price” – but he says consumers are starting to realise that supermarket promotions like Aldi’s Super Six only extend to a handful of products and often offer smaller pack sizes and inferior quality. “I think people are starting to wise up to the fact that although the price is smaller, the value for money with these supermarket offers isn’t necessarily the best,” he says.
Midlands greengrocer chain Joe Richards is a case in point. Its shops offer deals like four courgettes for £1 and two heads of broccoli for 89p, depending on availability and wholesale prices. And Mark Tate, the managing director of Birmingham Market wholesaler George Perry, which now owns Joe Richards, claims his business “undercuts all the supermarkets” – even the discounters.
George Perry took over six Joe Richards shops when the 46-year old, who the business is named after, died unexpectedly in 2015. Tate says the growing trend for top-up shopping rather than a big weekly supermarket shop, as demonstrated by Kantar data, was what encouraged George Perry to take the plunge. “A lot of people now, especially the younger working people in their 20s and 30s, just pick up what they want to eat that night,” he explains. “Not many people buy in bulk anymore. It’s back onto the high street – it’s changed in the last few years.”
Tate is now able to use his wholesale experience to the advantage of his new retail business. “Joe Richards gets some fantastic deals through our wholesale business, George Perry, and we push these into the shops.” One of the key things here is flexibility, and whereas the supermarkets are tied into long-term supply programmes and having to stock products all year round, independent greengrocers can “dip in and out and offer whatever is best value”, Bavin explains.
Another major factor in greengrocers’ reversal of fortunes, according to the presenter, is the move towards vegetarianism, veganism and reduced-meat diets. Campaigns like Veganuary have become commonplace and the steady stream of healthy eating messages is really influencing people’s buying habits, Bavin believes. He adds that, as a parent, greengrocers are “safer”, healthier places to take your children than the supermarkets. “You can let them choose whatever they want, safe in the knowledge they’re not going to pick up highly calorific, sugary foods,” he says.
Two businesses benefiting from this drive for clean eating are Beanies, a wholefoods co-op in Sheffield, and Hoxton Fruit, a chain of three (partly organic) greengrocers-cum-health food shops in London. Heather Adams, one of Beanies’ eight co-op members, says that many vegans prefer to shop at an independent retailer than at a supermarket, particularly when trying out new products, because they like to speak to someone with real knowledge .
This desire for product knowledge and personalised service is echoed by Hoxton Fruit’s owner Erkan Aydin who says customer relationships are crucial to his business. “We look into the eyes of our customers when we talk to them,” he says, “so that next time they come, they feel free to ask us questions about what’s in season and maybe how they can cook it. You can easily spend half an hour in the shop – there’s no rush.”
In a bid to keep customers in store for longer Aydin designed his third shop, in Clapham, with ambience and browsability in mind. Unlike many more traditional greengrocers, the store is not just rows of boxes on fake grass-lined shelves. The shop, which opened only five months ago, is all hand-carpented and warmly lit with shiny pre-washed fruit and veg lining the shelves. As well as fresh product, the shop offers a wide range of wholefoods, free-from products and healthy ready meals, not to mention the dried fruits, nuts and fresh olives. The sign reads not only greengrocer, but also ‘wheat free’, ‘gluten free’, ‘vegan’, ‘vegetarian’ and ‘wholefood’.
Marketing yourself as a vegan or vegetarian-friendly shop in this way is a good way of boosting sales, Bavin believes. He encourages independent retailers to harness the growing trend for veganism and healthy eating by bolting a few wholefoods and free-from products onto their offering and remarketing themselves.
Other tips he has for greengrocers as they compete for customers in a changing marketplace are to think about extending their opening hours to fit around the working day; to accept card, contactless and possibly mobile payment; and to get involved in the community and spread the word about their business.
One of the big challenges for greengrocers as they bid to survive alongside the supermarkets is the huge gulf in their advertising budgets compared to the multiples. “Supermarkets spend an awful lot of money telling people that their fruit and veg is the cheapest so it’s not very easy to counterbalance that,” Bavin concedes, “but I think it’s about getting involved in the community, spreading the word, doing some local press and trying to highlight what you do best.” He urges greengrocers to offer deals and community-based incentives to shop with them, suggesting a veg box scheme where a local school gets a donation each time a box is bought. At Joe Richards children are offered free fruit in store – an initiative launched two and a half years ago, before Tesco followed suit.
The other major obstacle, for greengrocers looking to open a new shop, are the sky-high rents and business rates they face in many of the more affluent parts of the country where they stand to sell well. “We’ve looked at expanding the business and opening a couple more shops,” says Tate, “but the rent these landlords are charging is disgraceful.”
Bavin suggests speaking to the relevant local authority to see if there’s any assistance available in the form of small business loans or preferential business rates. “If a greengrocer can keep its overheads down, it has a good chance of surviving and making money,” he says. And as a combination of factors pull people back to independent retailers, the future looks bright for Britain’s greengrocers – particularly those ready to move with the times.
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