SPAR UK Central Office

The UK joined the SPAR group in 1957, we are the largest voluntary convenience retail group in the United Kingdom.

SPAR UK consists of Central Office, six Regional Distribution Centres and over 2500 stores.

At Central Office we have a team of over 60 people that provide Marketing, Trading, Supply Chain, Management information and retail services to each of our Regional Distribution Centres to help them operate as the SPAR group, administration and finance are also responsible for separate activities at central office.

The Marketing team play a crucial role in SPAR UK’s marketing programme, if a key message is to be conveyed to SPAR retailers then its inclusion in the marketing programme is the best way to get the message across.

The programme has been designed to cover promotions, advertising, SPAR product development, national charity and sports sponsorship and consumer insight.

Within the trading department at Central Office, we cover Grocery, Licensing and fresh and frozen categories. Trading negotiates all national trading terms and national promotions programme.

Trading work closely with marketing to ensure that the marketing programme does run smoothly as the negotiations that trading make reflects on the Marketing Programme.

The Retail department are responsible for store development and services, category management and forecourt development. Promotions programme is part of retail development; this covers communications including point of sale, instore radio, and instore TV.

Management information team use performance measures to create reports by obtaining and processing data, the reports are used to compare data and gain a better understanding of SPAR sales.

Finance at central office look after financial functions at Central Office, including invoicing, collection and payment. Supplier payments, expenses and treasury is also part of the day to day job the finance team deal with. The wine and spirit account is managed centrally.

IT is responsible for supporting, developing and maintaining the IT systems for central office.

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