SPAR Scotland has revealed that it is rolling out its new food-to-go CJ’s brand in stores across the country.
Following the launch of the CJ’s concept last year, it has been introduced to 65 of the 108 company-owned SPAR stores in Scotland.
CJ’s is now the chain’s over-arching food-to-go brand, with the offer including hot breakfast and lunch, along with support from local bakers for a range of rolls, cakes, sweet treats, and hot savouries.
Stephen Brown, Head of Food to Go at SPAR Scotland said: “We are delighted to hit our target of installing CJ’s into 65 company stores by the end of April. This has been a team effort across all the company departments, and we have exciting plans in place to complete the install into all 108 company stores by September this year.”
SPAR Scotland is now looking to roll out the concept to independent SPAR retailers around Scotland.
“It is important that we work with our independent retailers to deliver an end-to-end market-leading solution in the development of food-to-go including product, process, training and legalities,” said Brown.
“We are working with our partners to bring the CJ’s offer to our stores. These include Costa Coffee, F’real Milkshakes, Rollover Hotdogs, Kepak, Dunkin Donuts, Greencore, Tango, Skwishee and CSM.
“Local bakery suppliers too like McGhees, Asher’s, JG Ross, Stuarts, Browning’s, Nevis, Kerr’s and Goodfellows have all helped to support the process in stores. These bakers are local to the stores and well known in the communities which gives CJ’s a unique local link.
“We continue to develop the best practices of national and global brands and have industry-leading compliance standards through the hard work of our store teams.”
The group highlighted that this has been the biggest investment by SPAR Scotland for many years. The business said it has taken inspiration from visiting SPAR partners in the UK and Europe, the best retailers across the country, and further afield from the US to Asia.
The retailer said more than 6 million fresh morning rolls have been sold to date in CJ’s along with coffee sales up 138%. This has been driven by its breakfast link deal which sees a breakfast roll sell for £1 with any coffee.
Brown said: “We have exciting plans to further grow our menu and continue to develop our food for now whilst also offering great food for later. There is a strong new product development pipeline in place to take advantage of seasonal and new trends.”
