s and top end lines as well as fresh foods,” Harrison said. “Trading head to head against Woolworths, we have posted remarkable sales growth in the store and developed some concepts within the Mt Eliza supermarket that we can incorporate in other stores.” Harrison said Ritchies is working to develop store formats that meet local market demographics and provide a point of difference to chain supermarkets and the Aldi format. Ritchies’ number one store at Dromana, also on the Mornington Peninsula south of Melbourne, will be refurbished and expanded to 3000sqm this year to incorporate an Italian focus, responding to the strong Italian community in that suburb. A new greenfields store at Maclean in northern NSW and an expansion of an existing store at Boonah in Queensland from 1200sqm to 2400sqm are both planned to include some elements of the Mt Eliza store concept. Ritchies has 68 stores, 36 of which are located in its home state of Victoria, but under a Metcash store development program that allows independents retailers to sell their stores to other Metcash aligned retailers, Ritchies are working on another 15 locations. The group has successfully converted a number of stores previously operated by other independents and several former chain locations, including a Coles store at Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsula. Harrison told Inside Retail PREMIUM that sales have improved and Ritchies is posting reasonable growth. “It is a tough market, but the Metcash price match initiative has been very positive. IGA’s marketshare was dropping, but we are now seeing a positive lift.” Ritchies has introduced self service checkouts to six stores and will rollout the system to a further 10 over the next six months. It will also introduce a sushi concept at Mt Eliza that can potentially be rolled out to other stores and has launched the Red Rabbit wine site, which has shown promising early results. This story first appeared in Inside Retail PREMIUM issue 2033. To subscribe, click here.