Jack's - part of the Tesco family
28 September 2018
Buy our Jack's report - 150+ pages of insight
Some images that we had from the Jack's opening day extravaganza are within this email.
We have also published our fuller report today, priced at £521 (excl VAT) featuring 300+ images across 160+ pages. Covering all angles and elements from both stores...
Why £521? Well, there was a lot of unkind press for the chain and it being a 'Brexit' apologist almost. So we decided to price the report at £521 to reflect the Brexit winning margin in the EU referendum (of course).
However any talk of Brexit and the Jack's chain are by and large, garbage. There has been a trend for British in almost any category for a number of year and this was amplified by the discounters and their work from c.2010 onwards.
Britishness plays a huge part, however the Brexit links have been overplayed and to a huge extent are absolute garbage. Written by people who need a map to get around a store at its most basic level.
The British push is 'me too' in terms of the wider sector, every retailer pushes their Fresh, British Milk. Discounters particularly highlight everything that is British to appeal to customers who may have been put off due to their German heritage.
Not because of Brexit.
Buy the Jack's report - 150+ pages of insight
Fresh Five is the name the collection given to the price cuts at Christmas, it's also featured in Jack's. It will be interesting to note if the price fight extends to the rolling Super 6 campaign in Aldi.
The store also features a Bakery; the freezer store for the products was moved to the Bakery itself (at a cost) as it improves productivity. The range is strong and Lidl have made Bakeries hugely successful.
Ably modelled by Mrs D; Jack's Tea is a good example of the own label. Nothing glamorous and broadly does the job on shelf.
The packaging does differ from category to category, despite a fair number of lines carrying the same label.
"Made Without" range was noted, this was a bay's worth of free from products which brings Jack's in line with Aldi and Lidl. Both have sourced free from and added these to the range in recent months.
Buy our Jack's report - 150+ pages of insight
Free From was added too; their 'made without' range brought Jacks in to line with both Aldi, and Lidl who offer the free from range in stores.
The general discount based efficiencies were reasonably thin on the ground. There were no mixed cases for example, with products listed on an individual basis.
There were a few MU (merchandising units) pre filled with stock in key categories like Pop, Sugar and Canned Goods. However there were not many others.
The branded range count (c.700) was inflated by the fact that lightbulbs (22 here) were all counted as brands for example.
These ends near checkouts featured various 'smaller' lines designed to grow spend within DIY and other household products.
The discounters are increasingly using their stores to align with a convenience based mission, smaller stores, car parking, late opening hours means they can pick up these customers. Jack's are also capitalising on this with their 'big night in' end near Fresh Foods.
Buy our Jack's report - 150+ pages of insight
Some highlights of the store above; the format is one that appears to work well for customers and the proof of the pudding will be in the eating from a customer viewpoint.
If we consider that both Chatteris and Immingham are marginally easier due to the fact these stores were pre built, 'new' Tesco stores.... The challenge will be in the Metro stores that are being converted, or where it's an older superstore that was under performing.
This is where the format could come in to its own.
As noted before; the issue will be the operational side alongside the margins and profitability of the chain - IE can they do enough volume? The sites look to be plentiful, both new space and also anything from the larger Tesco land bank.
Our report on Jack's features a great deal more detail than the images above (that are from the opening day), the 160+ page report features detail from both stores and the nuances between the two.
In addition, there is a great focus on branding, messaging, products and categories - all illustrated with some 300+ images.
Click the button above to visit our site and purchase our insightful look in to this new format.
Buy our Jack's report - 150+ pages of insight
From the Grocery Insight newsletter archive, first sent to subscribers on 28 September 2018. Steve now writes at read.groceryinsight.com. See also the blog archive and briefings.