A local affair

11/02/08

The new Dike & Son store in Stalbridge will be stepping boldly into the ring with the supermarket giants when it opens next week.

The extremely successful family-run grocery shop is tripling in size, to become possibly the largest independently owned supermarket in this part of the country.

It is an ambitious project started by William Dike last year, who at the time explained his thinking: “We all face competition and our customers have been extremely loyal to us. We feel it is only right to do some serious investing in the future. We need to keep up with the times.”

William died earlier this year, leaving his wife Deirdre and son Andy to realise his dream.

Andy said: “Dad was a Stalbridge man through and through. Our family have had a shop here since 1851 and he wanted to do something for Stalbridge. The competition out there is ferocious and we wanted to give our customers more choice, which we couldn’t do in our existing building.”

Dike’s has a long history of using local suppliers such as Mere Fish Farm, the Dorset Blue Soup Company, Moores Biscuits, Fudges Bakery and Southfields Sweet and Savoury of Wincanton for its quiches and cakes.

But the new store is adding a lot of new Dorset companies to its list of suppliers, including Organix baby foods, The Dorset Coffee Company, Blackmore Vale Dairy and Olives Et Al, as well as increasing its range of organic and Fair Trade food and wines.

Surveying the mass of cables, piles of stock and builders everywhere on Tuesday, it was hard to see it being finished within a week. Andy said: “I’m nervous as anything about being ready for the 5th. When we get up and running we can fine-tune it – and people must tell us what they’d like to see on the shelves.”

The new store will have a butchery department, run by John Thorner of Shepton Mallet. The meat (including organic and free range) will come mainly from farms in Somerset and north Dorset. Andy added: “We started out as butchers – Uncle Cyril was a butcher, so in a way we are just coming back to it.”

The shop will also sell fresh fish and delicatessen food. Store manager Adam Vincent said: “We will have a huge range of cheeses, such as Somerset camembert, hard and soft goat’s and sheep’s cheese, Dorset Blue Vinny, Barber’s 1833 vintage cheddar and Stinking Bishop. John Thorner will be doing hams and beef and we are being supplied with a fantastic range of hand-made pies and cakes from Okemoor, which customers can buy by the slice.”

At the same time the store is maintaining its relationship with Nisa-Todays, in order to keep prices competitive. Adam explained: “As well as quality, we want to provide a shop that can cater for everybody’s needs all week long.”

William’s Cafe, which will be open from 10am to 4pm, is at one end of the shop. In summer there’s a south-facing sun terrace, where customers will be able to sit and have a Fair Trade cappucino or latte from the Barista coffee machine, as well as hot dishes such baked potatoes, lasagne, paninis and soup.