Rodney Stevens

Community collaboration and specialised locally tailored products continue to drive sales records at Ritchies IGA Maclean, the successful model providing the catalyst that saw the supermarket crowned IGA International Retailer of the Year.

Founded in 1870, now with 78 Stores across three states, Ritchies IGA supermarkets is the longest continuously serving supermarket chain in Australia, with the Maclean store being one of the newest, opening its doors in October 2019.

Ritchies Group CEO Fred Harrison told the CV Independent the way the store works with the community is what stood it above other supermarkets.

“We have a lot of local products in our stores, we carry a lot of lines from the region,” he said.

“The Northern Rivers is a great food bowl, there is a lot in the area and region, and we support it all,” he said.

“We have a lady who works from home exclusively preparing donuts for us and we’re selling an enormous number of donuts.

“That has been a real winner, that we are supporting locals and I think the fact that we’ve really worked hard with community groups.”

Mr Harrison said Ritchies IGA Maclean has been tailored to its customers since it opened in 2019.

“We opened the liquor store a year before we opened the supermarket and that kind of paved the way for the supermarket to come,” he said.

“Judy and the team in liquor have done us very proud, right from the get-go.

“Our Ritchies card is quite popular where we’re donating money to local clubs, schools and charities in the region, that’s been successful,” he said.

“So, I think it’s our focus on local and tailoring a store and the range to what the customers want, as opposed to a ‘cookie cutter approach that you often see in the bigger stores.

“We’ve really been strong with the team in making sure that we’re servicing the customers, we have an ethos we have an ambition in Ritchies that we want to be known as the friendliest team in the supermarket and liquor industry.

Ritchies IGA Maclean were represented at the International IGA Conference in Las Vegas last month by store Manager Matt Saunders, James Cameron and Peter Lee who collected the IGA International Retailer of the Year award.

Mr Harrison said to win the Australian award was a huge honour, and it was a wonderful feeling to have their efforts recognised internationally.

“Matt Saunders, our store manager, has been outstanding,” Mr Harrison said.

“Matt has done a fabulous job of standing up and really reengaging with the team and I think one of the standouts of the store again versus the chains is we have really strong Digital Media platforms.

“The most challenging piece was winning the Australian award, that was done back in July last year.

“It is a team effort and we are only as good as the 16-year-old casual that works on a Tuesday night.

“Australian IGA stores are of a very high standard; we compare very strongly to other IGA stores around the world.”