Nisa Retail has announced it has signed a deal with Dobbies Garden Centres to support their new Foodhall strategy across its 35 garden centres.

Nisa's announcement says that the decision to join forces with Nisa was driven by Dobbies desire to develop its Foodhall offer. Customers can still expect to find unique, premium quality ‘foodie’ items in the Dobbies Foodhalls, but now a wide range of everyday groceries will be provided by Nisa. This extended range will give customers more choice and convenience, allowing Dobbies to cater for all customers’ needs under one roof.

The move allows Dobbies to harmonise its existing range with that of Nisa’s, utilising Nisa’s expertise available in range selection, planogram capability and promotional support. 

“We’re delighted to partner with Dobbies and look forward to helping them on a journey to establish their Foodhall as a one stop shopping destination, and unlocking the full sales potential of these sites,” said Steve Leach, Nisa Retail sales director.

Nisa has worked closely with Dobbies retail team to develop a range of fresh, chilled and frozen products, while helping to dovetail an everyday range of ambient products into the existing Dobbies Foodhall range.  The range will first be implemented at the Melville site, where Dobbies Head Office is based, in addition to sites at Dunfermline and Livingston will be the first, but the offer will roll out to the whole estate.

Rolling out to the whole estate could put Dobbies in direct competition with Tesco for convenience shopping at sites which are adjacent to Tesco stores such as at Inverness and Kings Lynn.

The Dobbies team have identified the potential sales in addressing visitors everyday shopping needs and moved to address this through the deal with Nisa.

Archie Stewart, Head of Food at Dobbies said: “I am delighted to see our new strategy come to life in the Foodhalls. Customers are increasingly shopping for less, more often and so we have created a Foodhall offer that caters to this top up shop mission, whilst also maintaining Dobbies’ uniqueness.  The Nisa product range has provided Dobbies with a credible breadth of range, while other well-loved brand collaborations such as Booths and Luca’s Ice Cream, and a continued commitment to local suppliers, have helped to differentiate our foodhalls and enhance the shopping experience”.

“Nisa has enjoyed an exceptional period of recruitment and has proven again that it is perfectly suited to partnering with a wide range of different retail formats and we know that Dobbies will benefit greatly from the input of our specialist retail support teams,” added Steve.

Nisa currently supplies 4,000 independently owned stores.  A spokesperson for Nisa explained to GTN Xtra: "Nisa doesn't have any company owned retail spaces and partners do not need to operate under a Nisa fascia. Nisa will supply Dobbies a range of branded and own brand goods which complement and expand its current range of products for the convenience of its customers. All sales will be Dobbies.

"Retailers have the option to stock either Co-op own brand or Nisa’s Heritage own brand. Dobbies will continue to sell the lines they currently carry, Nisa will be giving them the opportunity to complement that existing range with products to give customers more choice and convenience.

"Nisa can supply a wide range of fresh product lines, including meat, fruit, veg etc. The mix of product would be down to the store to choose what worked best for their business. So for example, and not specific to Dobbies, if a retailer already stocked a range of locally produced sausages and bacon, but didn’t have pre-packed fresh vegetables, they may decide that a further range of sausages wasn’t required but that a complimentary range of pre-packed veg was, in order to cater for a full meal occasion."