Spar International

Can you tell us a little about yourselves?
Moshtaba: I was born in Iran into a family of shoe makers. When I was 18, I arrived in The Netherlands in 1998 via Afghanistan, Poland and Russia, where my father did business.
Yasaman: I was also born in Iran where I studied medical science. I knew at a very young age that I wanted to see more of the world. After completing my study, I travelled alone to The Netherlands in 2004 and completed an MBD study here.

How did you become SPAR retailers?
MH: I began working as a head cashier in a supermarket. During this time I was able to work in many different departments and eventually became the Assistant Manager. I completed a number of different training courses including supermarket management and was promoted to Branch Manager. After working for two years as an Account Manager for a soft drinks producer, I knew that I wanted to be a retailer and have a large supermarket. SPAR appealed to me as a company which would support me as an independent retailer. I had seen some excellent SPAR supermarkets and felt that there was one in Leiden that would be perfect.
YH: Moshtaba took me to see a SPAR supermarket and asked me for my opinion on the store. When I walked into the supermarket, I knew that I was at home!

Can you give us some details about the store location?
Our store is the closest to the centre of Leiden. The supermarket is well located for the many residents in the area. There are a number of competitors in the area. Please describe your customer profile. There are many modern, young and older consumers with one or two person households. We also get a lot of passing trade, students and tourists from diverse countries who are visiting the historical centre of Leiden. Retailers in the area also do their shopping here.

Can you share their shopping patterns with us?
The smaller households of single or older people use luxury products, the so-called A-brands and purchase many 'convenience' items. They are not very price sensitive. Students live in houses and eat together, so they purchase larger quantities of good quality items. The retailers in the area buy their lunch and for company parties. Tourists usually purchase food-for-now.

How have you invested for the future development of your store?
We renovated the supermarket to make it more appealing and implemented a formula which works really well, namely: full, clean and really enjoyable atmosphere! What do you enjoy about being SPAR retailers? I find it very enjoyable to be able to bring back to a city the village atmosphere and lifestyle through presentation and personal contact with both the customers and our employees.

How would you describe yourself as a manager?
I like to think of myself as a people manager. My employees are part of one big family and our supermarket is officially a 'training company' for students who regularly come to obtain work experience. I am also a guest lecturer at a vocational training school and stimulate young people to study as much as possible.

Yasaman, what is it like to work together with your husband?
We made an agreement early on that for the first three years we would work full-time together. We enjoy working together very much and I wanted to do that. We have clear separation of roles whereby I am the Office Manager and my husband is the Floor Manager. I am frequently very busy with the administrative tasks but