Health Food Retail Operating Manual

Sliding Line

  • The client, a national retailer known for its premium in-store experience and extensive fresh food offerings, faced significant challenges in standardising their extensive product displays and various customer services, including in-store restaurants and juice bars across a network of locations. Inconsistent practices led to varying customer experiences and operational inefficiencies. To overcome these issues, it was critical to design and implement an Operating Manual that could standardise processes while allowing flexibility to meet location-specific needs. This challenge required a deep understanding of the business, from the ground up, to ensure that the new procedures would enhance the premium client experience, improve operational efficiency, and support the company’s growth objectives.

  • Key activities included:

    • Workshops and Interviews: We engaged key stakeholders to gain a comprehensive understanding of their operations, weaknesses and opportunities for improvement.

    • As-is Assessment: Conducted site visits and reviewed the existing operating documents to perform a gap analysis and identify opportunities.

    • Blueprint Manual Development: Collaborated with senior stakeholders to design an operating framework that could be tailored to different locations and product offerings.

    • Process Improvement: Identified operational inefficiencies and designed new processes to deliver improvements effectively.

    • Pilot and Testing: Ran a set of pilots across selected locations to validate the new operational processes and ensure they met the desired outcomes.

    • Roll-out: Managed the transition from the existing Operating Manual to the newly developed one, ensuring minimal disruption and comprehensive training for all relevant staff. 

  • Exevion successfully designed and implemented an improved Operating Manual that focused on improving the overall customer experience, achieving the following outcomes:  

    • Enhanced Customer Experience: The new procedures refined the customer journey by establishing high-standards for shelf presentation – products facing forward and gap management – along with a robust stock protocol for fresh food – ensuring availability and appearance. 

    • Standardised Delivery: Achieved consistent operations across the estate, including multi-service sites with in-store restaurants, juice bars and other service offerings, standardising delivery across all service points and reinforcing a strong, cohesive brand identity. 

    • Cost Reduction: The implementation of optimised processes led to a 15% reduction in labour costs due to efficient scheduling of tasks throughout the day.

    • Growth Plan: The established Operating Manual is a scalable foundation for future growth, allowing easy expansion to new locations by detailing best practice for new team leaders and site managers.

  • We successfully supported a leading health food retailer to enhance their existing Operating Manual, significantly improving operational efficiency while reinforcing the brand’s premium customer experience. By implementing a standardised service delivery model, the new manual ensured consistently high quality of food and services across locations. The upgraded manual provided a standardised yet adaptable framework that could be seamlessly rolled out across their entire estate. This solution addressed immediate challenges and positioned the company for sustainable growth, with a clear plan for maintaining service excellence as it expands in new markets.

    Exevion has extensive experience in helping businesses optimise their operations. Our phased approach involves thoroughly reviewing the current state, designing and building the future state, and managing the rollout of an improved solution. We are ready to partner with your business to achieve similar success, ensuring operations are improved and scalable for future growth.