One Stop celebrates success of five-year franchise pilot as stores sign up to continue

15 April 2019

One Stop is celebrating five successful years of its franchise operations by signing up store owners for a further five years. All of whom are delighted with how their businesses have grown since the pilot started, despite a highly competitive market.

One of the first franchisees to sign up with One Stop again were Shelley and Anu Goel from Acock’s Green who, after just three months, experienced their sales double with a £14,000 rise in just four weeks. Previously operating as independents for over 30 years before joining One Stop, competition forced them to rethink how they were running their business.

“For us we had to take drastic action,” explains the affable franchisee Shelley Goel. “A pub closed down very close to my store and then reopened as a Co Op and this really hit my sales. With kids at uni, a mortgage to pay, staff to pay and customers not coming through the door I panicked.”

Shelley diligently looked around for answers and investigated a number of franchise models. He continues: “When I spoke to One Stop they were the only ones who were interested in me and what I wanted. The rest just wanted to know how much I was going to spend and told me what I had do. One Stop actually listened and wanted to help me.”

One stop has over 750 company stores and a rapidly expanding portfolio of over 180 franchise stores. With so much competition now in the market One Stop is proving it has the formula needed to help support and rapidly grow convenience stores for franchise owners.

One Stop Business Development Manager, Sunil Kumar explains: “We have one of the best offers in the market place. We’ve continuously evolved the model since we launched the pilot to keep ahead of the competition and we offer market leading promotions, advanced technology, continual support and guidance, all of which is backed by a great retail environment. We take time to listen to our franchisees, as this helps us too. I’m delighted Shelley and Anu have signed up for another five years and are reaping the rewards for their business.”

Shelley explains what being part of the One Stop model means for him: “One Stop made us much more efficient. Everything we did before was done by a hunch, whereas we’re much more structured now. When we went to the cash and carry we didn’t get any help with what’s new on the market. However, we’re always open to new ideas and One Stop bring us these ideas which we never had before.

“Every four weeks our business manager comes, and we look at what is doing well and what isn’t and we can check this all against actual data. If items are not selling, we delete them and try something else. It’s more ruthless now but we don’t want stuff sitting on the shelf not earning us money.

“Because everything is computerised it saves us a lot of time ordering. Before it was all manual and we were just guessing. Everything now is backed up by facts and figures and One Stop are looking to improve their technology even further, which will again increase efficiencies. At the end of the day you can’t argue with the figures.”

So, what are One Stop stores, like Shelley’s, looking forward to in the next five years? Shelley concludes: “In the next five years I don’t have to worry about competition and what my neighbour is selling things for as I know the prices we have are always very competitive.

“Some people don’t like instruction but I’m not arrogant enough to say we know everything. There is always something new to learn and so much competition. At the end of the day what’s the point of me owning a shop unless it’s to earn money. If I didn’t make money how would I pay my staff, my mortgage? This is my livelihood and if One Stop make my job easier it enables me to concentrate on what I’m good at. Let them do what they do well.”

“People don’t want a corner shop, they want great quality products at lower prices. The world is changing, and you have to change with it.”