Tesco also own Dobbies
21 May 2014
Within that shift from UK powerhouse to laggard (in comparison to previous growth) was the purchase of Dobbies, the garden centre in 2007.
Spending £155m surprised the city, as no one had Tesco on the radar for the chain. At the time, Sir Terry spoke eagerly about the opportunities to enhance 'green credentials' offering solar panels, water butts and other carbon efficient products.
Hmmmmm.
I must confess, I was surprised when reading up on the Dobbies acquisition that it was so long ago.
Philip Clarke obviously felt the acquisition strategy was the right thing to do, expanding Tesco into areas where it wasn't a specialist. Euphorium for example fills a niche within artisan bread and cakes within Central London.
Similarly, Harris&Hoole is a solid investment, many Tesco stores have Costa Coffee outlets so expanding into takeaway Coffee makes sense.
Food service was an area where Tesco struggled, despite selling food themselves. They gave little consideration to 'take away' / 'eating' food in store, outsourcing in store cafes to a 3rd party and shying away from a real 'food 2 go' offer bar the usual sandwiches, crisps and cakes.
The acquisition of Giraffe surprised industry watchers (dismaying wannabe middle class parents too) but made perfect sense. There is little food service nous within Tesco, so buying a recognised brand to drop into high footfall Extra stores is a real 'win win'.
Given Dobbies was acquired nearly 7 years ago, there has been surprisingly little work done with harmonising the brand into Tesco.
Within the ever growing seasonal package (a 'branded event appears bi monthly for example) there was ample opportunity to harness Dobbies within the gardening range that is currently in stores.
Nothing was done there, dual openings / concessions were also a consideration, but again there has been no movement on that front bar Kings Lynn (a joint site) opened in 2013.
There are plans for future joint stores, East Kilbride for example but garden centres look to be a strong possibility to use up excess space in existing stores.
Future plans for remodels are likely to include Dobbies as a concession given the excess space available in Extra stores.
Despite the presence of Dobbies within the Tesco family, there has been very little in the way of enhancing the brand within stores.
This is despite opportunities with the 'gardening' seasonal event which seems tailor made for ranging Dobbies merchandise.
This year, Tesco have rolled 5 garden centres to stores within specific demographics to test the water it seems, garden centres are the new 'in' thing for retailers.
Morrisons started the race when they added a garden area to a former disused trolley bay at their Kirkstall lab store, before Asda followed suit. Waitrose have had a really good go with their garden centre offer this year.
Gardening equipment is high margin and remains a good sales driver, given people often need a significant amount of equipment / supplies each year. Consider Compost, plants etc.
Tesco have utilised their Dobbies partnership this year, so I took a trip over the pennines to affluent Prestwich for a look at the in store range and theatre.
The range in store isn't huge, and Prestwich is a superstore so this takes over the typical seasonal space in store.
The graphics / PoS / general ranging works well, there is a surprising amount of product merchandised into what is half an aisle of space.
Use of overheads on each bay highlights the Dobbies brand and 'brighten your day' strapline. Brighter PoS is featured which is significantly less clinical than that used by Tesco.
Whether this was a flash augmented reality piece of PoS, or was intended to have something on it, I'm unsure.
However, building the brand around free calendars and 'making gardening easier' is a great selling point.
Bus stop style signs are used to highlight pricing and also provide 'easy tips' for gardening.
Advice like this that make such a difference, and would really appeal to customers if a rollout was to happen. Gardening done well can be expensive but requires a level of insight and skill.
If Dobbie's can replicate this within Tesco via PoS, guiding customers and getting the range right. Then it's likely to be a massive winner for customers.
Furniture and ornaments are sold under the Dobbies own label which gives a different 'feel' to the aisle, trading products under a tertiary label drives interest.
Advertising is also used to drive customers online, via the Direct site to the Dobbies page.
This is only a 5 store 'trial' initially, but this visit shows that there is plenty of scope for stores to take this on within their core offer.
Work needs to be done to develop the range and crucially, target the suitable demographic and store formats.
Making stores destinations is crucial for Tesco, and Dobbies needs to play a much bigger part than a few store refits and 'implants'.
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From the Grocery Insight newsletter archive, first sent to subscribers on 21 May 2014. Steve now writes at read.groceryinsight.com. See also the blog archive and briefings.