Peter Patel crowns new store opening with an AT Award

When Peter Patel was declared a winner in the 31^st Asian Trader Awards, held virtually on 9 February, it came as a cherry on the cake as this month has also seen him opening the doors to his fifth store.

Peter won the Shop Safety Best Practice Award in the Asian Trader Awards 2020, a special award to acknowledge the hard work and persistence of independent retailers in upholding the rules of hygiene and social distancing during the pandemic.

Peter was recognised for his outstanding service at Costcutter store in Brockley, Lewisham.

The 900 sq ft store in Meopham will undergo a full refit and expansion soon, taking it to 1,600 sq ft by June.

Peter has opened his fourth store in September last year in Southborough, Tunbridge Wells, with the 1600 sq ft store achieving 200 per cent of its sales target in the first week.

All his stores are under the Costcutter fascia, and for the Southborough store he worked with CSG’s store development team to convert the site, which had been closed for 12 months, into a modern convenience store offering shoppers a wide range of fresh food and the option of doing a ‘full shop’ closer to home.

“The tills have certainly been ringing since opening. The Southborough store is performing really well and I’m pleased to see my team’s hard work in creating a great local shopping experience and offer being welcomed by local shoppers,” he said.

Encouraged by the success in his London based stores, Peter has introduced a 100 per cent free-from packaging refill station for store cupboard essentials at Southborough, which also features a Costa Coffee machine, F’real milkshakes, Fwip ice cream, Tango Ice Blast drinks and range of COOK frozen meals.

The early success in Southborough follows impressive results across Peter’s other stores. Year-on-year sales at his award winning Costcutter Brockley store have increased 85 per cent, his Brentwood site has seen sales increases of over 38 per cent and his store in Heanor, Derbyshire, which opened in Feb 2019, up 20 per cent.

“We’ve now brought five stores over to Costcutter and we are enjoying tremendous growth. The support we receive from CSG helps us to stay close to our shoppers, understand their needs and create a strong and relevant offer for them. The success is especially rewarding after such a challenging year,” he added.