HFSS countdown & Co-op Pharmacy campaign launches
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Published 26 Aug 2022 in Phil's blog
This week as part of our monthly Exec meeting, the team & I were in the Oxfordshire area visiting a number of trading sites. Joining me in visiting both Madley Park Food store and the Madley Park Nursery branch was Susan Barguss, Joint Chief HR Officer Interim. As part of our Society investments, it was great to see the positive impact the installation of new refrigeration and LED lighting has made on the Food store and how the High Fat, Salt & Sugar (HFSS) changes are coming along.
Left to right – with Susan Barguss, Joint Chief HR Officer Interim, Leigh Toft, Store Manager at Madley Park Food & myself
Left to right – with Deputy Manager, Mariana Santos, Nursery Manager, Kelly Neale at Madley Park Nursery & myself
After visiting the store, we then headed over to the nursery, where Manager, Kelly Neale gave us a guided tour. A bright and colourful environment, Kelly and her team have been busy refreshing their nursery and even painted walls during the first lockdown! At the time of our visit, we met contractors renovating the nursery garden. This will make a huge difference to our little pioneers and families who visit Madley Park, great to see.
High Fat, Salt & Sugar (HFSS) countdown
You may have heard in the news that the Government will now restrict unhealthy food promotions in stores from October this year. A change in regulations will impact most of our Food stores with changes to the layout and the repositioning of point-of-sale materials, our Food teams have been very busy complying with the changes and are ready for the go-live date.
It means from 1 October, pre-packaged high fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) products can’t be displayed in locations where we see lots of customers pass through our stores – e.g., near the front door, checkouts, or on our promotion ends. To get ready for this, in our impacted stores, we have been ‘relaying’ the ambient merchandising space (where products are displayed on the shop floor), as well as updating our product category planograms (what products are displayed on our shelves). For many stores, this represents big changes where we have now completed over 90% of the store relay programme.
New point of sale material has also landed in stores this week to help promote member bays, promotional bays & healthier snacking ranges. This includes pennants, floor stickers and headers to ensure these areas really stand out in-store. I got a chance to see this on my visit to Madley Park Food store earlier this week. A thank you to the Merchandising team and Food colleagues who have been working hard to make the changes. As part of the implementation, all colleagues have been briefed about what HFSS means and the benefits this will bring by making healthier choices more accessible for our members.
When the changes happen, our members and customers won’t be able to see HFSS products on the promotion ends, and they’ll likely shop our aisles much more. But this will give them more choice in what to buy and the opportunity to make some positive changes and improved choices in how they shop and what they eat. To find out more click here.
‘Feel better for less’ Co-op Pharmacy campaign launches
Earlier this week saw the launch of the Your Co-op Pharmacy marketing campaign to help drive and raise awareness of the brand in collaboration with Your Co-op Food.
Promoted across all digital channels as well as point of sale material in-stores, members can ‘Feel better for less’ with 20% off as well as the colleague exclusive of 20% off and free standard delivery. The promotion covers Healthcare essentials, testing products, fragrances and gift ideas.
With a wide range of marketing campaigns planned in over the coming months to encourage colleagues and members to shop at www.cooppharmacy.coop, point of sale has landed in-store as well as on the member's app, to ensure our colleagues, members and customers can take advantage of the great offers.
Colleague Pulse Survey now live & Colleague Pay day event
The latest colleague pulse survey opened yesterday and closes on 4 September. This is your chance to take part and let us know your views. All you need to do is log in via Colleagues Connect, and the survey link will be shown in your notifications.
As mentioned before, taking part in the survey gives us an overall view of what colleagues think and from this, we can make positive changes for the better. I encourage everyone to take part and share the survey with fellow colleagues. Entries are anonymous, and if you take part, you have a chance to win one of five £20 Your Co-op Vouchers. To find out more, click here.
Don’t forget as it’s pay day, all colleagues can take advantage of the fantastic offers across our trading areas. With deals in Food, Healthcare and Travel you can find out more here.
Everymind webinars
Finally, we had the biggest colleague turnout for the recent Everymind webinar earlier this week, which is great news. These webinars are really important for all colleagues and can help manage mental health and wellbeing. If you missed the Low Mood session, you can watch it back here. Look out for more Everymind sessions for colleagues and if you would like more support, download the dedicated Colleague Mental Health Support App by Everymind here.
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