How did 2018 shape up for the P&C industry? Convenience World asked key figures to reflect on the past year. This week: Coles Express Online and Corporate Affairs Chief Executive Alister Jordan (right).
At Coles Express our aim is to make life easier for our customers.
We know our customers’ needs are changing rapidly and we’re evolving our offer accordingly. That means more fresh, interesting and innovative food to go, evening meal solutions and, of course, the basics at great value to cater for pantry top-ups.
It’s our belief that we can deliver our customers right around Australia a market-leading fresh convenience offer, enabled by:
- 6,000 passionate team members that work hard every day to provide amazing service.
- 700 stores in prime locations. Most customers drive past one of our stores several times a week, if not every day.
- The opportunities that being part of Coles Group presents, particularly in terms of the value we’re able to provide in our product range and our membership of the flybuys loyalty program.
As our offer has evolved this year, so too has our network and format.
More than 600 of our sites now offer Coles click and collect. For the busy parent shuttling between work and school pick-ups, being able to pick up the weekly shopping without having to travel even a block out of their way is exactly what they’ve been looking for.
We began our fresh transformation. At 11 Coles Express sites across Victoria, our customers can now enjoy a greater range of fresh fruit and vegetables, including Coles Own Brand salad kits and ready-to-go salad bowls, as well as high-quality fresh meats and an expanded range of bakery products. All this in addition to the freshly ground espresso coffee and food to go that Coles Express is already famous for. Our aim is to continue to extend our expanded fresh offer across the Coles Express network into all regions across the country.
At the same time, we’ve launched our new Coles Express convenience format, with stores operating as standalone, non-fuel sites. Our Richmond store in Melbourne, which opened in December, is one of five planned openings during FY19 in Victoria.
Over the year, we opened a net 11 new sites around Australia, taking our network to 713. These new locations have given us the opportunity to serve new communities and provide further fresh convenience for our customers.
It goes without saying that none of this is possible without our wonderful team. Incredibly, 11 members of our team celebrated 25 years of service this year, two marked 30 years’ service and one achieved 35 years’ service.
All of our team members around Australia look forward to continuing to deliver passionate customer service and evolving our product offer to continue to make life easier for our customers in 2019.
