CWS Welcome for local shops

The Co-operative Wholesale Society is to relaunch its 275-strong Late Shop convenience chain as Welcome next month, as part of an overall repositioning of its operation.

The move was prompted by increasing competition from supermarket chains for neighbourhood convenience stores.

Enterprise IG created the new name and worked up the identity, interiors and facia for Welcome. It liaised with the client on elements of branding strategy.

Enterprise is also looking at CWS market-town stores, with a view to revamping them in line with the Welcome brand. CWS senior marketing manager Ged Carter says this project could include a new brand name to denote the market-town stores.

Conran Design Group has already created a new format for CWS’s non-food branch, which is currently piloting in East Kilbride, Scotland (DW 1 May 1998). Carter says elements of this design are currently being incorporated into CWS department stores.

“The Welcome brand aims to be a more pleasant, more accessible environment than at the moment,” says Enterprise client director Philip Hodson. He describes existing stores as “often not particularly pleasant options”.

“We are keen to appeal to a broader cross-section of the population and to strengthen the brand’s core values of quality and value,” adds Hodson.

The new-look CWS format will initially launch on 22 February in stores in Nottingham, Hertfordshire and Croydon.

See News Analysis, page 7