Dundee-based Spar wholesaler CJ Lang has introduced new employee benefits to attract and retain staff.
The Longtown Road business supplies more than 300 Spar shops in Scotland and also owns 107 company stores.
Despite paying the national living wage, the business has more than 80 vacancies.
Chief executive Colin McLean said the labour market was very tight.
He is hoping that a new initiative, offering staff a ‘double discount’ in Spar shops, will help workers through the cost of living crisis is among his top priorities.
“We’ve done a lot of work to help our 1,700 colleagues through he cost of living crisis,” he said.
“This includes offering them a double discount in Spar shops.
“We normally offer 10% off everything but now we’re offering 20% off everything until Christmas and extended that to family members too.
“It’s a very tight labour market and we hope this will help us stand out as a national living wage employer.”
People shopping less frequently as cost of living bites
CJ Lang saw its pre-tax profits increase by 10.7% to £3.4 million in the financial year to April 20 2022. Revenue was steady at £212m.
Mr McLean describes this as a great result against a challenging economic backdrop.
He said there has recently been a noticeable change in customer behaviour in the convenience stores.
“In recent weeks we’ve seen the basket spend going up, probably driven by inflation, but the number of visits reducing very slightly,” he said.
“There’s a trend there starting to appear that customers are shopping a little less frequently and not spending on as much luxuries as they would have done.
“Food inflation is running at an all time high of 14% and it’s not been easy to pass on price increases.
“We have to protect the business but we also have to make sure that we are helping customers. We have been working very hard to introduce value ranges for bread, milk and eggs.”
Spar Dundee closure
Mr McLean said CJ Lang’s priorities going forward is to continue to invest in its company stores. Last year £2m was invested in its food to go offer.
It is also attracting more independent operators to become Spar shops. It has also opened two new CJ Lang-owned shops in Troon and Dalbeattie.
As part of a review of its estate, CJ Lang recently closed its Spar shop in Dundee’s Hilltown.
Mr McLean adds: “Unfortunately there were six redundancies while we did endeavour to relocate the staff.
“It’s a strange situation where we’ve got the best part of 80 odd vacancies across the business but people didn’t want to relocate to other opportunities in Dundee.”
CJ Lang previously offered a £2,000 sign up bonus for lorry drivers.
