Former hairdresser Melanie Elms was among the first to sign up to Thresher ‘s franchise scheme , t aking on a branch in Eastbourne, East Sussex, in November 2006. She is one of 47 Thresher franchisees whose stores have “gone live”, with more busy getting their businesses up and running. Her store is on a corner of a busy street in an affluent part of…

Others include Bath, Moorgate in London and Bath Road, Bristol. A further 26 – including Winchester, St Albans and Alderley Edge in Cheshire – now have the Nicolas fascia. One new shop – in the Wirral, Merseyside – has opened, with branches in Woodley, Reading and Kilmarnock Road in Glasgow following in June. Castel said it is closing unprofitable branches and opening in areas more…

eme to help eliminate sales of alcohol to under-18s. The grocer is trialling the system at 10 stores in Scotland and is expecting a wider roll-out across its estate. Now it is calling on other chains to follow suit, in a move that could radically alter the character of the trade’s united approach to responsible retailing. Asda already operates the nationally-recognised Challenge 21 policy, but…

Bargain Booze has parted company with one of its franchisees after he was found to be trading irresponsibly. The franchisee, who Bargain Booze did not name, ran two stores in the south east of England but was told to stop trading under the Bargain Booze name after he failed three test purchases in three months. Joint managing director Matthew Hughes said: “He was persistently selling…

The retailer now has 135 shops across the UK after opening outlets in Dulwich and Colchester, and is set to open stores in Sonning, Berkshire, in May, Aberdeen in early summer and a newly built shop in Sevenoaks, Kent, in autumn. “Our target would be 175 by the end of 2010, and we certainly see the potential for 200,” said chief executive Tim How, whose…

It may trail its rivals for number of stores and bottles sold, but when it comes to the respect of its wine suppliers, Waitrose is by far the UK’s leading supermarket. In a major survey of 100 supermarket wine suppliers by OLN’s sister magazine Wine & Spirit, the upmarket grocer was an emphatic winner in every category – voted the best for offering a fair…

Trading from a converted farm shed in rural Scotland, Kate McDiarmid stocks an impressive range of New World wines. Alice Whitehead visits Though she trained as a radiographer and left her native Australia for Britain in her early 20s, Kate McDiarmid’s McLaren Vale upbringing is clearly still in her blood. Some eight years ago she met and married a Perthshire farmer and turned an ancient…