Nisa has announced that 620 stores signed up to be part of the Nisa symbol group in the last 12 months, delivering a significant uplift on the previous year.
Key drivers for the growth include Nisa’s ability to serve a broad spectrum of retail and wholesale operators, strong availability levels throughout the pandemic, despite industry-wide challenges and access to more than 2,000 Co-op own brand products that offer a quality own label proposition for retailers.
The launch of the new Nisa Express format in October has provided further opportunity for growth, providing a dedicated fascia option and store format for smaller convenience and forecourt sites. Nisa’s forecourt numbers were boosted by the recruitment of more than 60 new sites in 2020 and having been recognised as the Shoppers’ Favourite Forecourt Fascia in a recent industry awards, the new Express model forms an important part of the strategy to accelerate forecourt recruitment further, providing a contemporary solution tailored to the sub 1,000 sq. ft. forecourt market.
And despite the many challenges the pandemic caused for the industry, 2020 also saw 131 Nisa stores converted to the latest Evolution format as retailers continued to invest in their stores and future-proof their businesses with Nisa.
In addition, Nisa’s ability to service a wide variety of retailers led to numerous successes in recruiting large multi-site key accounts, including Ascona Group, Touts and the Highland Group, with many also continuing to grow their estate since joining Nisa, including Amacor and PGNJ Ltd.
Another key development in recent months included the launch of Nisa’s new website, which consolidated a number of existing sites to create one comprehensive platform that clearly and effectively demonstrates the Nisa offering, catering for a wide range of stakeholders and resulting in a significant increase in the number of enquiries received from prospective partners.
With the recruitment of new stores continuing to be a key focus for Nisa, further investment has been made in this area in the form of additional resource within the recruitment team, and the formation of a new induction team dedicated to supporting new partners during their first 100 days with Nisa and ensuring a smooth transition process.
Steve Leach, sales director at Nisa, said, “2020 was a record year for store recruitment at Nisa, which is testament to the strength of Nisa’s offer and that of the recruitment team, who have adapted brilliantly to embrace a primarily virtual recruitment method under such difficult circumstances this year.
“This flexibility, combined with our ability to serve a broad spectrum of retail and wholesale operators has enabled us to not only recruit a significant number of new stores but also unlock key growth in existing partner estates by providing an environment in which independent retailers can flourish.
“As part of our focused approach towards driving partner recruitment a number of structural changes were also recently implemented to our teams which will enable us to build on the momentum of last year in 2021.”