Group sees off increased sales in festive season

 Stop and Shop and City Pharmacy have experienced increased sales during the festive period given the specials the business arms offered on most goods, group chief operating officer David Young says.

He said: “During the season, CPL group focused on the core items that customers really want.

“For our supermarket division, while we understand that Christmas ham is a significant food icon during the holiday season, we planned for huge price cuts on rice, flour, chicken, Coke (2litre), tea, butter and saveloy.

“We started doing this last year and sales shoot up for all our stores and we had increased in sales against last year in the total supermarket business. 

“For our pharmacy division, we had gift packs ranging from K9.95 to K99. We strengthened our giftable items such as general merchandise, coffrets, toys, watches and a lot more. This gave us 14 per cent increase in sales.

“For toys and holiday decorations, both City Pharmacy and Stop N Shop offered particularly aggressive deals on all things Christmas.”

Young added that since the Group opened the Waigani Central supermarket, sales has been healthy.

 “We have improved the car park condition and improved the merchandise assortment. Since then, our customer base has grown tremendously.”

He said it was worth noting that last year, Christmas and Boxing Day fell on weekdays, when many people might have been at work.

“As such, we have extended our working hours a week before Christmas which resulted shopping convenience for many of our ardent customers.