London store celebrates 30 years with Nisa with successful refit

A Nisa store, located next to the ExCel Arena in London, has undertaken a successful refit, revamping the store’s own brand and product offering.

The store, which has been a customer with Nisa for over 30 years, was passed onto retailer Harsh Amipara in 2019 by his uncle. The newly refurbished store on Freemasons Road was officially opened in November 2023 and celebrated its grand re-opening last week.

A fundamental focus of the refit was to install and expand the freezer storage area to ensure strong availability space for frozen goods. The introduction of additional healthy alternatives and food to go to Harsh’s store offering, along with innovative additions such as an ice cream section and an orange juice machine, has been well-received customers.

“A lot of thought process went into what to keep, how much to keep with fridges, chillers, freezers and food to go etc. There was a lot of research and advice from other retailers,” Harsh said.

Harsh stressed the importance of access to Co-op own brand products through being a Nisa customer which has allowed Harsh to elevate the overall quality of his offering. “We went from being just another normal independent convenience store to being much better. It's levelling up by providing big brands, such as Co-op core products,” Harsh said.

He added that attending Nisa’s annual Expo event in October also opened his eyes to new products and suppliers, leading to successful innovation in his store offering, such as Rollover Hot Dogs and Country Choice.

Harsh said that the biggest piece of advice he would give to other stores looking to refit would be “to not be afraid of change.”

"Always have new products in store. I think it’s key to keep up with trends, even if you don’t think they’d work for your store. As well as regularly introducing new products, it is also important to frequently discontinue those that don't perform well. Creating competition among products.”

The store in Greater London already has effective community links and has donated nearly £10,000 through Nisa’s Making a Difference Locally charity to local causes including a community bookshop, Newham Foodbank and Richard House Children’s Hospice.