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The new format was launched at the wholesaler’s 2020 Nisa Expo, which is taking place online today and tomorrow after the group’s usual trade show at Stoneleigh in Warwickshire was cancelled earlier this year due to the pandemic.
There are three format options – forecourt, food-centric and essentials – each with a design and range tailored to its specific market.
The food-centric option is the focus of the store being exhibited via a virtual tour facility at Nisa Expo and is based around the on-the-go and meal-for-tonight customer.
This format is designed to mainly service the “cash-rich, time-poor consumer, living predominantly in a city-centre location where shoppers want to be wowed and inspired when entering a store”.
The format features an enhanced food-to-go offer, bean-to-cup coffee and a focus on fresh foods, complemented by the ‘on-trend’ vending offers and a seating area.
Further options include draught beer, refillables, an ice-cream bar and self-service checkouts.
The essentials version of Nisa Express is targeted at neighbourhood stores.
It aims to maximise all the essential elements of a small store, including beers, wines and spirits, alongside a “generous” chilled range, a focus on value, and services such as a post office to drive footfall.
The forecourt format is said to combine “the current market trends with where the market is heading”.
Head of format at Nisa, Darren May, said: “Our new Nisa Express format is designed to meet the needs of Nisa partners who operate smaller stores but who want to ensure their business is contemporary, has the right look and feel and provides their customers with the best shopping environment.
“We want to ensure all partners have access to a Nisa fascia and format that complements their individual offering and location and we believe this is achievable with the Nisa Express format.”
Nisa says the new format will allow it to enter markets it had been unable to service before.
Chief operating officer John McNeill said: “From a format perspective, that was a gap in terms of our overall proposition, and one we had been seeking to fill.
“Because of changing consumer behaviour and the way the market is moving, the opportunity to make more of compact spaces is becoming ever-more important.”
The first Nisa Express store – a forecourt version – also opened today on a forecourt in Bedford run by the Ascona Group, which joined Nisa in May this year.
McNeill said Nisa was working with Ascona on further opportunities to deploy the format but was looking to expand all three versions and hoped to make “a significant impact by the end of the year”.
He said: “There are a lot of forecourt opportunities, but also city centre opportunities, particularly in places like Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield, where the percentage of the population that lives in the city centre is continuing to grow.”
McNeill declined to set a target figure for the number of Nisa Express stores but said: “We’re ambitious. We would be hopeful we would move into double digits by the end of the year.
“There’s a big opportunity there, but we need to get it down and understand how it works and that will inform our ambition for 2021. It will become a key part of our offer alongside Nisa Local.
Nisa chief executive Ken Towle said a lot of thought had gone into the science behind the Express format, which aimed to provide both breadth and depth of range within a small space. The food-centric version of Nisa Express, for example, will range about 2,500 SKUs.
“Bringing it down to a really crafted and curated offer takes more skill, and also some trial and error,” Towle said. “We will be able to refine it over time.”
He concluded: “We feel we’re creating something that can power the retailers’ success.”
