Q8 Rødovre, Copenhagen, Denmark
Q8 Danmark’s Rødovre site, located 20 minutes west of Copenhagen city centre, has introduced a new foodvenience concept in partnership with Noahs, a foodtech company, integrating digital food brands with advanced technology and smart kitchen architecture to revolutionize foodservice in convenience retail.
This initiative represents a complete redefinition of Q8 Danmark’s convenience store concept and is expected to influence future operational strategies, including station design, operation, and management.
Company and Brand Overview
Q8 Danmark A/S and OK-Q8 AB in Sweden were fused together in 2012 into one scandinavian company; OKQ8 Scandinavia.
OKQ8 Scandinavia is one of Scandinavias largest fuel and energy provider with over 1.000 service stations for private cars as well as heavy traffic. We are in the process of rolling out a nationwide network of HPC (High Powered Charging) both in Denmark and Sweden.
In Denmark we have 106 manned sites that we are in the process of transforming into “stand alone” destinations with food and beverage being our primary driver. We realized early on that one of the key factors to success for this was to find strong partnerships, that would lift the quality perception of our product offerings.
Food strategy journey
The first major partnership started already in 2016, where we introduced high quality coffee together with the Starbucks brand and launched Starbucks on the go.
Our food strategy journey seriously took off in 2020, where we knew we had to differentiate ourselves from the rest of the market. This lead to our partnership with Meyers (one of Denmark’s most innovative and sustainable food brands), so that Q8 now offers 100% organic high quality bakery in small “shop in shop” atmosphere.
Between Starbucks and Meyers, we became a strong destination for food and beverage on the go, especially in the morning hours which are some of our peak hours.
Partnership with Noahs
Our next challenge is to prolong our relevance throughout the day, this is where our latest partnership with Noahs becomes crucial. Noahs is a foodtech company that combines digital born food brands with technology and smart kitchen architecture to power the transformation of foodservice in retail.
Noahs offers a wide range of food concepts (such as salads, burgers and tacos) that enables Q8 to enter the growing take-away market that calls for larger meals than the traditional fast food assortment.
With a minimum investment, Noahs has enables Q8 to transform from a traditional service station into a new revolutionary foodvenience store. A first of its kind.
Store Photos
Store and Offer Overview
Our main customer mission is the be a modern foodvenience store that offers the traditional kiosk assortment that is expected of us, but also to be able to surprise and inspire our customers with a wider assortment that can meed all differenct needs and demands throughout the day.
This we have achieved by offering more than 75 unique food products (that also cater to customers with special dietary needs) and more than 25 coffee options (from a plain americano to a iced hazelnut latte).
Morning
- Our customers start visting us from the very early morning where we kickstart their day with quality organic bakery form Meyers and a freshly brewed coffee from Starbucks.
Lunch
- For lunch which is also another peak time in customer flow, we are able to meet the needs of several occasions, whether it is a quick meal on the go or a longer “time-out” break our customer is looking for, we are able to meet their demands.
- We offer quality food that is easy to be consumed on the go with smart packaging such as one of our signature products, a hotdog produced with pork of high animal welfare or one of our many baked snacks options. And now, with our new partnership with Noahs, freshly made warm meals are also available to be consumed in our lounge or as a take home meal.
Evening
- Our new venture with Noahs has lead to a boom of transactions in the evening hours, where we are able to accommodate a large online sale of takeaway orders, as well as customer who orders food directly in our stores to take home.
- Our partnerships enables us to have a sustainable customer flow throughout the many hours of a day that we are open.
Some of our signature products are our, Taco table, Iced Hazelnut Latte & Cinnamon roll.
Layout and Retail Environment
Our shop area is around 60 m2 and is designed with the principle of less is more.
In order to make space for the new kitchen concept, we had to rethink the design of the store and use of space to create the most dymamic foodvenience store.
- We have our normal kiosk assortment but have customized plannograms that only include items that are fast movers.
- Additionally we have challenged the traditional service station set up with ambient displays of e.g. pallets of beverages that primarily serves as secondary exposure for our suppliers instead of focusing the space on products the customers actually pluck from.
- Furthermore, we have replaced our shelves with lower height inventory, so that there is a more open feel to the store and customers are able to easily navigate and see the whole store regardless of where they are standing.
With the introduction of a new food offering, we also had to redesign our seating area to be more inviting to our customers, here we have succeeded with very little space to make a cozy lounge area that is both suitable for solo-dining or to enjoy their meals as a group up to 6 people.
An outdoor area has also been updated that seats over 18 customers and has already become a place we see often used by our customers.
This has resulted in us being able to maintain our current food assortment as well as being able to add a food service kitchen of 20 m2 to an existing store.
The store is therefore designed to give the feeling of being a ‘sales hub‘ for different brands of foods or more of a small food and beverage market.
- Our Starbucks concept is situated in its own mini environment with a branded coffee module, where the distinct feeling of being in a coffee shop is felt.
- Our bakery is clearly co-branded with Meyers and instead of the usual bakery disks that are used in convenience, we buildt new inventory that mirrors how modern and popular bakery shops look, with a clear overview of the assortment right where the customer stands. On the walls behind the bakery areas, we have also added wooden baskets for whole loafs of breads, which gives an authentic impression of a true high quality bakery.
Our Noahs concept is designed with full insight into the kitchen area, such as we see in many modern food establishments with open kitchens, so that customers are able to follow the process from A to Z.
The customers are able to order their meals from a digital screen that features attractive pictures of the various food products and can pick up their order directly from the open kitchen.
Also to remove the bottleneck traffic in our stores with the high volume of aggregators, we have built pick-up boxes to be placed outside our shop, where aggregators can pick up their orders without ever entering the stores.
Customer Experience
Since the reopening of our new Q8 concept store, we have received an overly positive response from our customers.
Our mission with co-branding with some of the strongest brands in the industry gives our products a stamp of approval regarding high quality and good experiences and this is something our customers appreciate; being able to have access to high quality brands and products (such as Starbucks coffee, 100% organic Meyers bakery or Noahs) outside urban Copenhagen city center.
One of the key mentions that customers appreciate and choose us for is the wide range of product offerings we are now able to provide. We are able to accommodate customers who come in on their own for a quick snack, customers who are seeking high quality coffee and bakery for breakfast as well as freshly made takeaway in the evening.
Especially the later part with Noahs has been praised by customers due to the flexibility they now have to be able to make their dinner stop a one-stop shop, where the individual needs are met.
- Typically for takeaway, a group will have to compromise and order the same type of cuisine, now there are able to order individually from burgers, to saladbowls to mexcian tacos, all in one single order and from one pick up point.
- Due to the combination of each food item being prepared freshly and made to order along with the ordering platform being very user-friendly, it is easy for a customer to customize their order according to their specific dietary preference.
We have received very good reviews for the Noahs food concept with an average rating of 8,6/10 with a customer retention of 80%.
Besides the digital screens to order food from the Noahs concept, we have also installed self checkout counters that allows customer to help themselves on the products that does not require employee handling. During peak hours, customer are now able to purchase most of our shop items more quickly and finish their transactions without having to wait in line.
Operational Excellence
Q8 has a very strong culture where we aim to provide a workplace where employee satisfaction is highly valued. We know that front line is bottom line and with happy employees, results will follow.
Being that most of our new employees are younger in age, we understand the importance that technology is key to integrate them into their daily work.
- We build training materials that can easily be accessed from their smartphones and in short video formats that is more suitable for the younger generation.
- In their everyday operations, we have introduced technological tools that help them be more efficient so they can focus on giving our customers the best possible experience.
Operational excellence highlights
- We see a strong cross utilization of kitchen and service counter employees, providing great synergy and a more energetic vibe than in a regular service station.
- We have a culture of passion on the team and it has made a big difference to include high quality food options, so the employees are more proud of their work.
- The new challenges of working a real kitchen section alongside the service counter has made our training and onboarding more appealing for recruitment and we receive more applications.
- The technology provided by Noahs makes the customer experience seamless and simple – It is a big improvement as everything happens digitally and includes a great loyalty program as well.
- The technology in the kitchen enables very easy operations and require less qualifications to run the kitchen than what would be expected. We don’t need increased management personnel to run the Noahs kitchen.
- We are now an online marketplace and can sell food and drinks online to delivery platforms, seamless and without interruptions. We also have the ability to snooze items and change menu (including prices) seamlessly and efficiently
- The Noahs initiative has created a wave of positivity towards innovation in Q8 and the rest of our 105 manned service stations are requesting to be the next location to implement Noahs in their shop.
- We have an ongoing training of our employees regarding how to work with our bakery products, being that the assortment is 100% organic and primarily sourdough based, there are higher requirements regarding rise time and general handling of the products to ensure the high level of quality. These trainings happen via our advanced online platforms with easy to follow videos as well as 1-1 training with our dedicated food consultants that visit our shops frequently.
- We have also agreed upon audits from our partners to make sure the customers get the best experience each time they visit us. Audits are conducted monthly by 3rd party that rates the overall performance. We invest a lot of resources in the continuously development of our employees to ensure a constant pipeline of new managers/shift leaders so we are always ready when we experience employee turnover.
Overall Performance
The introduction of our new foodvenience store has been a complete redefinition of our convenience store concept and it will have a big impact on operational strategy in the future – How the stations are fitted, operated and managed in the future. It has given us a new peek into what the future of service station operations looks like and how we will become digital marketplaces in the future.
Highlights
- More than 50% of our profits now come from food and beverage
- Food & Beverage gross profit is at index 225 vs LY.
- Customer retention is 80% in our native app
- Food & Beverage Basket size is at index 161 vs LY.
‘The Best Foodvenience Store in the World’ 2024