Ritchies IGA is on the cusp of launching a dedicated liquor e-commerce site. Set to launch by the end of this month, Red Rabbit by Ritchies comes less than two months after the opening of Ritchies IGA’s first luxury supermarket offer, Ritchies Fine Food and Wine Merchants at Mt Eliza in south east Melbourne. Ritchies CEO, Fred Harrison, told Inside Retail PREMIUM Red Rabbit by Ritchies will carry exclusive wine offers not available at Ritchies’ bricks and mortar stores. It is the IGA franchi
se’s first foray into online retailing.
“We’ve put a lot of homework into this,” Harrison said. “It’s not going to be a general liquor offer.
“We see it as a very exciting innovation for us, and if that works well, then that could be a bit of a forerunner for us to do more in the online space.”
On January 29 Ritchies IGA launched its first gourmet supermarket, with the refurbishment and expansion of its existing Mt Eliza store.
The store has gone from 12,000sqm to 19,010sqm, in addition to a new 210sqm liquor store.
Store turnover has doubled since the relaunch.
“It’s gone staggeringly well,” says Harrison. “We’ve achieved results much better than we were anticipating.”
The Mt Eliza store has added 3000 new lines, and features a central bakery with fresh baked products, gourmet meat department, cheese bar, organic fruit and vegetables, and fresh seafood.
A highlight of the store is Australia’s first and only La Maison Maille Boutique featuring 22 varieties of the French brand’s mustard and vinaigrettes.
“The range is amazing, we have a huge component of direct, high quality gourmet foods in store. Our range would be 50 per cent warehouse, 50 per cent direct.
“Between the Maille mustard, bakery, deli, and the range, our fresh food departments have been the driver.
“We’re achieving about 43 per cent of the supermarket sale from fresh food. Standard stores are 26 per cent to 27 per cent.
“It’s in a very good demographic, we’ve done our homework exceptionally well.
“The aim has been to showcase quality and variety while covering all price ranges and catering for the widest range of customers while still offering the discounts and community focus that we have built the business on.”
A decision on the rollout of further Ritchies Fine Food and Wine Merchants stores is expected to be made this month.
“Will roll it out, but it is costly, we need to look at the demographics. We’re planning discussions around that very subject.”
Outside of the two new concepts, Harrison says the business is working on localised price matching.
“We’re trying to become a bit more competitive on the shelf, that’s a trial in a number of our stores.
“It’s early days, but we are going to test the market and see if being more competitive and sharper on the shelf can lead to an increase in supermarket and fresh sales and more foot traffic.”
