East London store relaunches as Nisa Extra after major refit

A Nisa store in east London has just relaunched as a Nisa Extra following an extensive refurbishment.

The first major refit since 2014 has seen a renewed focus on customer service, energy efficiency and an improved fresh offer for shoppers at the Nisa Local Virginia Quays store.

“Since the store moved to Nisa in 2014, we’ve made many changes across the store but not done anything major and so it was time for us to invest and bring it up to date with a full overhaul of the entire store,” executive manager Sivakumar Pandian, said.

The store now adorns a whole fresh look, starting with the reorientation of the aisles to alter the flow of the shop and offer store staff a better view for security purposes.

The rear of the store has been opened up creating more space for additional chillers and the food to go preparation area moved next to the existing Subway counter. This has enabled the introduction of an array of new ranges including Cooks frozen foods and authentic Asian brands.

Existing vinyl flooring has been stripped back and regenerated, all the lighting replaced, and every existing dairy cabinet and freezer also replaced along with new ones added.

An exceptionally busy store, particularly for commuters travelling in and out of the city via the neighbouring train line, a key investment was in the installation of more self-service tills to ensure customers could make purchases with minimal queuing time.

A new counter has been installed which includes three Nisa Epositive till positions as well as the addition of further self-service check-outs to reduce queuing times at peak trading hours.

“Previously we had four manned check-outs and two self-service check-outs and when we were busy, customers would be queuing down every aisle,” Pandian said.

“We’ve been looking at increasing till capacity for several years and so now we’ve got three manned and six self-check-outs and we have virtually no queues at all, even when it’s at its busiest.”

The latest energy efficient chillers and new lighting will help reduce energy bills and the increased chiller space has allowed the introduction of several new ranges and a wide choice of NPDs.

“I have been going to lots of trade shows and come across a lot of new products and ideas to bring into the business. And anything new that Nisa brings out, we try it first, bringing it into store to see how it works for our customers,” Pandian explained.

Still only weeks since the refit completed, the store has seen like for like growth and shoppers are returning to shop in person after many opted for online purchasing throughout Covid.

“We work with Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat from the store and do a lot of trade that way, but we are now getting customer count back up in store since the pandemic and have just gone past pre-Covid levels which is really pleasing,” Pandian added.

“We will concentrate on building up loyal customers again as well as growing our online sales and once the store has settled down, we’ll look at where we need to focus next.”