Grocer becomes industry’s newest retailer; Asda triples games headcount to encourage ‘aggressive trading’
Somerfield has unveiled a shock warplan to become a leading games retailer – as fellow supermarkets Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury’s aggressively expand their buying teams in a bid to grab more market share.
In yet another new route to market for UK publishers, The Co-operative, which bought Somerfield for £1.5 billion last year, has placed video games in over 100 of its UK stores – with plans to expand the range into its biggest outlets this summer.
The Co-Op owns 3,000 grocery stores nationwide and is the fifth largest supermarket chain in the UK. Morrisons’ distributor, MBL, is servicing the firm’s games offering.
“We introduced video games to 60 large Somerfield stores at Christmas and they have been very popular with our customers,” said a company spokesperson. “We now sell DS and PS2 games, and this has been expanded into around 100 stores. We plan to roll out this supply to other larger Somerfield stores in the next few months.”
Meanwhile, Asda has revealed that its buying team has jumped from four to 14 employees – as it aims to become the UK’s largest non-specialist video games retailer.
“We now have supply and distribution teams, and a merchandise planning function,” explained games buying manager Duncan Cross. “Without a middle-man, we can really trade aggressively. Every retailer is seeing games as the growth engine. This is a highly competitive industry, but ‘bring it on’ is our message.”
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Elsewhere, Tesco has added ex-EUK stalwarts Mark Burgess and John Stanhope to its games team as it goes on the prowl for more market share. Sainsbury’s has promoted Gurdeep Hunjan to games manager, and hired ex-EUK staff Chris Cahill and Nick Arran as senior buyers.
Comments
New Distie
great another supermarket that will sell to my customers for less than i can get games & consoles from centresoft & gem etc.
All these new local Disties, Asda Tesco Morrisons spoilt for choice now
Aggresive Trading
I note that Asda etc encourage Aggressive Trading , which means undercutting all competition.
I would encourage all Indies to start Aggressive Buying. Boycott Centresoft & Gem etc now & buy cheaper at Amazon with 30 day moneyback guarantee or your local supermarket.
At the moment we Indies are way down the price chain. Once the Publishers sell to the High Street Stores, Supermarkets and Internet then they allow centresoft & gem to try and sell whats left to us Indies at a far higher price than everyone else.
I have considered employing my own buying team, they are called Bill & Tony and they go round supermarkets buying what we need on their push bikes.
Happy Days
How long can Centresoft & Gem last without us
Senior Buyer Taken on
Indie RIP has taken on a new Senior Buyer not from EUK as Tesco have done but George who is 74 with his own Bus Pass so I save on Travel expenses when he goes out buying my games from Supermarkets.
He loves the Free Asda bus and also we benefit from his Tesco Clubcard Points
Sad State
its pretty sad when we start mouthing off the people that are trying to help us (Gem/Centresoft etc).
the supermarkets sell at a loss so no matter how hard our suppliers try they cannot offer deals to compete and even if they did the supermarkets would just lower the prices even more!
make up the difference selling pre-owned stock and blame the stupid pricing on the supermarkets.
TRue John
True John Centresoft & Gem do their best with what they are given and told the prices to sell to us by the Publishers. I fear for them as much as anyone but the more people putting pressure on publishers the better.
Pre-owned stock is 70% of my turnover but just had a CEX open who are giving £28 trade & £25 cash on most top titles.
Catch 22 ring a bell
John the clown?
John
So your top business advice is to buy from Centresoft etc and sell for a loss?!
Removal of posts
I love the way that when you say anything truthful on this website, the comment disappears!
No explanation - Simply deleted.
@Bob
Bob - that's not the case. Truthful comments are exactly what we're looking for. Offensive, poorly written, moronic or libellous comments, however, are not wanted, and will be deleted without explanation.
RE @Bob
Is it truthful to say that online retailers are selling a forthcoming Sony PS3 release below Centresofts wholesale price?
Its never been my intention to write anything offensive, Poorly, moronic or libellous and don't think I have. I do however awknowledge your guidelines for the future.
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