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Welcome Break – Newport Pagnell / Caravell Case Study
Story
Caravell, the UK’s leading supplier of commercial refrigeration, was selected by Welcome Break in July 2007 to create a refrigeration unit in a retail outlet at one of their busiest service stations in the country, Newport Pagnell.
Caravell was tasked with helping Welcome Break increase sales of sandwiches in the WHSmith of the busy service station. The competition from the catering outlets on the site meant sandwiches were not selling as well in the WHSmith retail store; WH Smith was not the natural choice for purchasing sandwiches. What was needed was to improve the image and visibility of the sandwiches within the retail outlet.
Caravell designed an “island” consisting of a number of refrigeration units. By December 2007, within just two and a half months of installing the new units, sales of sandwiches had increased by an impressive 40%.
Welcome Break worked closely with Caravell’s shop fitting partners on design concepts, and eventually settled upon a bespoke island unit that was similar to an upmarket delicatessen cabinet in terms of design. This resulted in the sandwiches being presented within the unit as desirable quality premium food products. The unit had to have the ‘wow factor’ and be easy for busy consumers to access and walk around.
Four of Caravell’s top-of-the-range CPD cabinets were arranged two in a line, then back to back, with a CPD 600 unit at each end, to form the island. Wooden corners were added to give the opportunity to sell ambient associated products, making a one stop snack stop. The chiller cabinets were designed from scratch with glass sides and clinical, clean blue lighting to convey the fresh, healthy products within the cabinet. The ‘delicatessen’ look and feel was further conveyed through the placing of bespoke baskets on each corner of the unit, designed to display fruit and other healthy snacks which would reinforce the premium feel.
Welcome Break chose Caravell on the basis of their extensive experience within coffee shops and other retail outlets across the UK. They have been so pleased with the results that they are looking at introducing new table concepts and additional refrigeration units in other Welcome Breaks around the country.
John Lougher, CEO of Caravell, commented: “We are committed to delivering innovation and quality in every project that we work on – and this was a particularly successful project that has really paid dividends for Welcome Break in a very short space of time. We are looking forward to building upon the relationship, and coming up with contemporary concepts for islands in other large service stations around the country.”
One smaller unit has been trialled at the London Gateway petrol forecourt – which also achieved the aim of increasing sandwich sales. A similar trial at Corley has also been undertaken, and results are yet to be analysed.
