UK | More than 600 delegates gathered at Harrogate Convention Centre for SPAR Forward to discuss a range of convenience retail strategies.
Those attending included SPAR independent retailers from across the North of England, retail teams from James Hall & Co. Ltd’s G&E Murgatroyd company-owned SPAR store division, and SPAR colleagues from elsewhere in the UK and internationally.
An action-packed tradeshow with 66 of the biggest suppliers in convenience retail, including headline sponsors British American Tobacco, Budweiser Brewing Group, Carlsberg-Britvic, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, Nestlé, and PepsiCo.
An entertaining social evening featuring a series of team games and a quiz rounded off the day, with food served by James Hall & Co. Ltd brands Fazilas and Graham Eyes Quality Butchers.
Chairman and CEO Andrew Hall welcomed delegates to SPAR Forward. They outlined plans to expand James Hall & Co. Ltd’s existing food manufacturing capabilities to better support SPAR independent retailers in navigating supply chain issues and stubborn inflationary pressures.
He declared, ‘If we can’t buy it, we will make it’, listing the launches of new SPAR fresh chicken products, mid-tier chilled SPAR brand pizzas, and Clayton Park Bakery sourdough lines as key highlights of the last 12 months. He also announced that fresh food sales in the SPAR Northern Guild have outstripped the wider convenience retail sector by four percent.
Ann Forshaw’s used SPAR Forward to launch a new Gooseberry and Elderflower yoghurt alongside an equally tempting Apple Crumble luxury yoghurt in the brand’s glass jar range, with Clayton Park Bakery opting to showcase new Cherry and Marshmallow Cupcakes on the day.
More bread lines, cake varieties, on-the-go food solutions, and ready meals were revealed as being in the new product development pipeline for launches in the months ahead.
SPAR Forward also marked the chance to celebrate 70 years of SPAR in the UK, with James Hall & Co. Ltd, the only remaining founding partner of SPAR UK from 1956, when the brand entered the market from the Netherlands.
Retro design SPAR tote bags were handed out to attendees at the SPAR UK stand, where hundreds of SPAR own-brand lines were on display, with Joint Managing Director Dominic Hall reiterating to retailers that SPAR own-brand products drive loyalty and value.
Supporting this, SPAR International Managing Director Tobias Wasmuht featured his own brand, store investment, and fresh food success stories from SPAR countries, including France, Malta, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland, noting the shift to convenience shopping in markets such as Saudi Arabia, too, where hypermarket stores have traditionally been king.
He said research showed 42 percent of Gen Z buy Food To Go at least weekly compared to just 27 percent of Gen X. He championed SPAR Netherlands for winning in the arena of ‘on the go’ food service, particularly in urban and city centre stores, through a strategic decision to move away from declining categories and into direct competition with established food service brands.
Company Stores Director Fiona Drummond focused on the evolving Food To range at SPAR Kitt Green in Wigan after the introduction of a serve-over deli counter adjacent to the tills during the store’s complete refurbishment in November 2025.
The move is designed to deliver a seamless one-stop service and prevent customers from having to queue twice. Breakfast and lunch successes were shared, and she encouraged retailers not to neglect afternoon and evening Food To Go sales, citing evidence from Kitt Green showing 32 percent higher sales than comparable SPAR stores between 2 pm and 7 pm.
In other updates, Joint Managing Director Niels Dekkers said the SPAR Northern Guild will invest GBP 8.8m in new retail technology, marketing, and margins, including partnering with RELEX Solutions to upgrade forecasting and replenishment across wholesale and retail operations.
He also stressed that the value of Q-commerce platforms to convenience retail was still growing, with Uber Eats introduced in 2025. The platform has not cannibalised sales placed at company-owned SPAR stores through Deliveroo and Just Eat but has instead established itself as part of a formidable trio that has grown Q-commerce sales by 40 percent in the last year.
James Hall & Co. Ltd is a fifth-generation family business which serves a network of independent SPAR retailers and company-owned SPAR stores across Northern England.
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