What Is A Product Worth?

Tough And Hard Wearing

We had a visit yesterday from an important trade figure who's almost first comment was about our milk pricing. He thought that our 2 litre price was 'very cheap' even compared to Tesco or Asda. Not wishing to look as though we were failing to understand our maket place and the strategy we use I told him about hobnail boots.

We have been selling milk for more than a decade and have always wanted to give our customers a good deal on price. We started with a few dozen pints a week and have grown sales to over two thousand pints every week. Along the way there have been casualties among our local competition, but the hobnail boot strategy demands that if they can't or don't want to match us, we could not allow them to hold you back.

This strategy has been helpful in keeping our customers coming through the door over the past decade or so as Sainsbury's then Tesco brought 50,000 square feet plus of supermarket space to Pulborough. Because of our growth in milk volume and the fact that we joined the Londis symbol group we have benefitted from a good cost price for milk. We have stamped our hobnail boots down hard and used milk as one of our daily footfall drivers by matching or getting as close as we can to the big boys price.

I think that it has worked as turnover has grown along with the volume of milk sales. We do need take another look at what Tesco is currently charging, particularly for the key 2 litre size.