Spar

June 29, 2021

Ambitious Spar grocer wins international award

Malene Houni Hansen is a grocer in Danish Spar in central Jutland’s Haderup as the second generation after her parents. As the first Danish grocer ever, she has won an international award based on her ambitious activities in the local area and the courage to invest.

For many years, the main road through Haderup has been responsible for the primary traffic with many customers giving Malene Houni Hansen’s Spar store a visit. But in the autumn of 2020, a 7.5-kilometer bypass around Haderup was completed – a road that directs traffic and potential customers around the city.

The construction work already began in the autumn of 2018 and here Malene Houni Hansen initiated a plan to expand and rebuild the store for almost 3 million DKK. The store was to be made more attractive with, among other things, a larger fruit & vegs and fresh food department as well as an expansion of the delicacy.

"We can now handle the time-consuming work with product and price updates much faster. In this way, we get more time for the customers."

Malene Houni Hansen, Merchant, Spar Haderup

Extraordinary results

In June 2019, the rebuilt store was ready. It has only progressed since then and revenue has increased by 12 percent from 2019 to 2020.

The combination of the positive results, and the local commitment, has led to the great price; FMI – The Food Industry Association’s Store Manager Award 2021 in the category: “International retailers: Companies operating outside of the U.S.”

The award honors merchants around the world who manage to create extraordinary results in sales growth, leadership, customer service, and affiliation with the local area – especially during the corona pandemic.

Exactly customer service is something the store has got more time for after the implementation of electronic shelf labels in connection with the renovation in 2019.

– We can now handle the time-consuming work with product and price updates much faster. In this way, we get more time for the customers, says Malene Houni Hansen and continues:

– One of the smartest things about the solution is the whole handling of the signs on a daily basis. We can use an app to connect new items to new signs. At the same time, we can also use the app to change the location of the signs in the store – it just works and is a great help in our work.

Part of something bigger

In addition to being a grocer in her own store, Malene Houni Hansen is also involved in the Spar chain’s concept, where she is a regular part of the central chain council. Today, a grocery council has also been set up for all Dagrofa’s chain formats LetKøb, MinKøbmand, Spar, and MENY. Here, Malene Houni Hansen is also part of the grocery council for the Spar chain.

In Dagrofa, more than 240 of Malene Houni Hansen’s grocery colleagues have also installed electronic price tags from Delfi Technologies.

However, it is not only the electronic price tags that help to create good experiences in Spar Haderup. The shop also organizes several activities such as gourmet evenings with wine sales. Facebook is also used to engage the local area and market special offers and activities.

About Spar

SPAR is one of the Dagrofa Group’s local store chains and today consists of 138 stores throughout Denmark. The SPAR stores are primarily owned and operated by independent merchants. In addition, Dagrofa also owns some SPAR stores. The SPAR merchant cherishes the local and is the gathering place in the local community. Internationally, SPAR is represented in 50 countries and includes more than 12,000 stores.