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Sainsbury's to roll out new wine concept to all stores

Published:  14 May, 2010


Sainsbury's is to introduce a new fixture and sales concept for its wine department in all its stores by the end of June.

Sainsbury's is to introduce a new fixture and sales concept for its wine department in all its stores by the end of June.

The move signals the result of what has been a top to toe review of its wine strategy since the arrival of Justin James as head of its beers, wines and spirits department a year ago.

The new store concept has been successfully trialled in six stores over the last few months and has been designed to segment Sainsbury's wine offer to appeal to different consumers and drinkers of wine. It will also hopefully, said James, take away some of the barriers to buying and trading up in the category and help in his objective to make Sainsbury's the "nation's favourite wine store".

The new fixture will include:
* Our Cellar - which will highlight Sainsbury's offer by country and variety and is designed to get regular wine drinkers who tend to buy from gondola ends down the wine aisle.

? Case Deals - a dedicated section to encourage purchases of a minimum of six bottle cases

? New Arrivals - a standalone section which will feature all of Sainsbury's new lines across all varieties, countries and price points

? Discover - aimed at more confident wine buyers who are looking for more interesting and challenging wines and who are not overtly promotion driven.

? Everyday favourites - an edited highlights package which looks to promote wine by style and grape variety and not by country.

? House - Sainsbury's new 25-strong entry level own label range priced between £3.50-£4.50 which is aimed at less confident shoppers with a clear offer based on grape variety, style and not by country. It will allow Sainsbury's to better source wines for this range from the most cost effective wine producing country and producer.

The strategy has been developed, said James, by a close analysis of customer shopping behavior within the wine category drawn from its Nectar loyalty card data. All of which pointed to the need to simplify the wine fixture, break down barriers and encourage drinkers of all types to find their place in the fixture and the wine that works for them. "We are confident this approach will help stop the confusion so that many people have when they look at a wine aisle," said James.

He added: "We have a very broad church of customers and we have to do a better job in engaging them. But by understanding our customers shopping needs more it means we can change the way we do things based on those understandings."

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