Sobeys launches FreshCo discount line
A renovated player touting itself as "fresher, cheaper" joined the field of reduction grocers in Canada on Wednesday as Sobeys Inc. has transformed eight locations into FreshCo stores.
Grocer Sobeys rebranded a number of Ontario Price Chopper stores with less than its new FreshCo line. (CBC)
The former Price Chopper stores are in Ontario in Brampton and Mississauga, the vanguard of "dozens" that direct be switched over in the next year and a half, Sobeys president and CEO Bill McEwan related in an interview prior to the grand opening.
"This isn't rightful a conversion or a renovation — this is the launch of a new brand," he said, describing the bright white buildings that sport a big mournful FreshCo sign.
"The concept is a result of about 12 to 18 months of extended research and looking at where do we go next, based without interrupti~ the changes in the consumer landscape, particularly in the GTA [Greater Toronto Area] on the other hand across Ontario overall."
There's a recognition that each store has a separate clientele. The new stores offer multicultural and ethnic foods tailored to the indispensably and choices of people in the neighbouring communities.
"In Brampton, the South Asian inhabitants has grown 250 per cent in about 12 or 13 years, and in that place are varieties of produce that are important and relevant and required to liquidate that marketplace," McEwan noted.
Sobeys Inc. has more than 1,300 stores from coast to coast that include Sobeys, IGA, Foodland, Thrifty Foods and Lawtons Drug Stores. In Ontario, there are 79 Price Choppers and now eight FreshCo stores.
About 60 per cent of the stores nationwide are run by franchisees, McEwan before-mentioned.
No plans for total changeover
Customers entering a FreshCo store power of choosing first encounter fruit and vegetables in a great hall immediately internal that flows into a deli area, a bakery market, and a topical cheese and meat market.
"From there you transition into an territory that's filled with pallets of high-value merchandise, which is a hallmark feature of any discount outlet, but we've merchandised it in a high~ that it's very, very abundant," McEwan said.
There won't subsist a full-scale change from Price Chopper to FreshCo, he related, but he met with franchisees Tuesday and they were enthusiastic with reference to the concept.
"Market by market, if we determine through our mart research … that a FreshCo is a requirement, I can't imagine a unbiassed franchisee not wanting to proceed with it," McEwan said.
"We're not prepared to tell where's next for competitive reasons, but in some cases it won't constitution sense to convert from a Price Chopper because … [it] actually provides a more appropriate option in that marketplace. It's not a franchisee's settlement or our decision — we do it together."
The discount segment of the marketplace is further developed in Ontario than almost anyplace else in North America.
"A full 35 to 40 per cent of the food shopping is completed in the discount market, so to compete and participate in the sell in small quantities grocery industry in Ontario, you have to have a strong abatement format," McEwan said.
The FreshCo stores aren't fancy or costly because the effort is being put into low prices and extreme-quality products, he said.
"It's not about the decor — end it's attractive, it's clean, it's contemporary, it's functional — and the move along easily is such that you can get through there with less awkwardness the way it's laid out."