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GERLAND'S TESTS PERISHABLES FORMAT

HOUSTON -- Gerland's Food Fair here is testing a perishables format it inherited when it bought back a store it had previously sold.Kevin Doris, president and chief executive officer of the 16-unit chain, told SN Gerland's will limit the format to the single store for at least six months to a year to evaluate it before deciding whether to expand the perishables concept to additional stores.However,

HOUSTON -- Gerland's Food Fair here is testing a perishables format it inherited when it bought back a store it had previously sold.

Kevin Doris, president and chief executive officer of the 16-unit chain, told SN Gerland's will limit the format to the single store for at least six months to a year to evaluate it before deciding whether to expand the perishables concept to additional stores.

However, initial results are good, he said, with sales up 30% to 35% since the store reopened at the end of April. "We're about 10% better than where we were when we sold the store," he noted, "and sales are still growing."

The 42,000-square-foot store, located in an upper middle-class suburb called Sugar Creek, is operating under the name Gerland's Grand Market to reflect the differences in the store's merchandise from other Gerland's stores.

Doris said the Sugar Creek store had been sold 18 months ago to Belden's, a local independent, who converted it to a more upscale format -- in line with its own merchandising philosophy -- that included installation of perimeter service departments.

"But Belden's had little name recognition in the area, and when they approached us about buying back the store at an attractive price, we decided to do it and to take what they had done and try to improve on it," Doris said.

As a result, the Grand Market unit has a bigger selection of produce, service deli items, seafood and wine than other Gerland's stores, plus a scratch bakery instead of a bakeoff; an executive chef in the kitchen area to oversee prepared foods, and a specialty-cut meat case, he pointed out.

"We didn't really touch the perimeter departments -- we simply took a page from Belden's and kept as many of their associates as possible. But after talking with focus groups representing their customers and ours, we determined the center of the store was weak, and that's where we made some changes," Doris told SN.

Most of the changes involved remerchandising the store and restoring approximately 1,000 basic items, or about 15% of the merchandise, he said.

"Belden's had gone upscale with a lot of specialty foods to the point they limited the variety and selection of regular stock-up items, so we brought in more mainline products, including health and beauty care, greeting cards and other non-edibles," Doris said.

"We also reintroduced the store-within-a-store concept we use chainwide for specialty merchandise, with wire racks for an upscale look fitted into 4-foot sections within the regular shelving."

According to Doris, Gerland's also lowered the store's pricing to the same level as the rest of its stores.