'We always do what we can for our communities' - celebrating 80 years of local SPAR retailer Hunts
The business currently has 22 SPAR stores, employing around 500 people.
“My grandfather Jack opened his first store in 1946 in Walmer Bridge with the idea of supporting the community, supplied by the local farms of West Lancashire. The business has changed a lot since then, but our ethos of being there for the community has not.”
Kevin Hunt, third generation Managing Director of Lawrence Hunt & Co. Ltd, is reflecting on 80 years of the Hunts convenience stores business. It is also an opportunity to look to the future with his son Jack primed to take it forward in the years to come as the fourth generation.
People with long memories will remember the early Hunts convenience stores, but for most, the Hunts name has been synonymous with the SPAR brand. The business currently has 22 SPAR stores, employing around 500 people, and they serve communities in locations from Blackpool to Burscough, Carnforth to Coppull, and Lancaster to Leyland.
Lawrence Hunt & Co. Ltd were the first independent retailers in Northern England to join the SPAR family in 1956 through wholesaler James Hall & Co. Ltd when the SPAR name arrived in the UK market from the Netherlands. Hunts and SPAR have enjoyed shared anniversaries since, and as Hunts celebrate 80 years, SPAR in the UK is marking its 70th anniversary.
Kevin said: “It is a proud feeling to be leading a family business celebrating 80 years, and milestone years offer the opportunity to reflect on where you have come from and where you are heading. We marked our 70th anniversary in 2016, but 75 years timed with the pandemic and we could not really mark the occasion properly.
“Unfortunately, our 80th year began with the sad, sudden death of a dear colleague in Tony Miller. He was a lovely, genuine man whose positive impact on our family business was significant. Tony would have wanted us to continue and mark the 80 th anniversary, so we are doing it with him in our thoughts.”
Kevin has experienced the rollercoaster that is the world of convenience retail and has lived through the many changes that have occurred as the retail landscape has evolved.
He said: “Our Walmer Bridge store was followed by Longton in 1958 and the rest is history. We have seen it all over the years. At one time in Walmer Bridge, every third property was a store; you would have a tobacconist, a baker, a butcher, and three different newsagents. I expect for customers, it can feel a bit like that today. The convenience market is saturated by a choice of different stores. It is the same for us as retailers competing for sales with all the fascias on the street, plus vaping shops that may sell convenience products on the side.
“We had a fight for survival in the 1970s when we could not financially compete with the large format supermarkets which were a new concept. You could buy your food and drink alongside clothes and homeware; there was a huge amount of space, and they had massive car parks.
“Boom time came in the 1980s when we fought back as one of the leading retailers pioneering SPAR’s famous Eight Till Late slogan. Legislation changed in the UK meaning we could open later in the evenings and on Sundays, and it was the gateway to transforming our business.”
Always forward-thinking, Kevin is embracing the latest era of change brought on by shifting customer habits and digitisation. While not keen to get off the rollercoaster just yet, the process of handing over the baton to Jack to take the business forward has begun.
Kevin said: “It is challenging now, but I am excited about the future. Jack is 33 and is full of enthusiasm to modernise our offer and to continue doing what we have always done which is deliver an excellent convenience range for customers and serve our communities well. Convenience retail is very cyclical. We have been through periods where we have taken butchers and deli counters out, and now we are putting them back in. Customers increasingly use our stores for Food To Go so that must be our future direction.
“We see our five key pillars as having outstanding in-store delis, providing fantastic Mercer’s meat, and offering high-quality produce – we know people shop with their eyes. We will have Post Offices and parcel services in our stores to act as footfall drivers, and if we can deliver all this with the exceptional customer service we are renowned for, we will have half a chance of being successful in the future.
“AI and digitisation are changing things, but we want the best of both worlds. We understand the need for self-checkouts in some of our stores. But people will continue to play a role in serving customers as we know people shop with us like to be served by a human so they can discuss the weather or how their children are doing at school.”
It is retaining the connection with communities that Kevin wants to continue nurturing too – by giving back to the clubs and organisations that shop in the company’s SPAR stores. Kevin said: “We always do what we can for our communities, it is essential as a local retailer. Week in and week out we support raffles and quizzes through our stores, and we will fund three or four junior sports kits every year.
“I have just renewed our annual sponsorship of Tarleton Rugby Club tied to our long-standing SPAR store in the village, and each year we also help with everything from Carnforth Carnival to Walmer Bridge’s Bonfire Night. It is great to have the brand visible through our giving back, but our hope is that parents of children remember that it was the local business that paid for the kit or the person who tastes something they love at an event recognises it was the local business that donated it.”