SPAR, the world’s largest retail food chain, has chosen Bristol-based Mentor Digital as its new digital agency partner for the UK and Northern Ireland.
Mentor Digital, which employs 32 people in its base in Kingsdown and a London office, was appointed following a competitive tender process. 
It is now designing and developing the new SPAR UK & NI corporate websites and suppling ongoing creative, technical and digital marketing support for SPAR’s digital strategy.
It is also helping develop the digital application of the SPAR brand and provide SEO and digital marketing support.
Dutch-owned SPAR said its 2,600 UK shops were central to their communities and the new websites would support these communities by nurturing neighbourhoods, creating community hubs and promoting health and wellbeing campaigns, as well as showcasing special offers and driving footfall to stores.
Having both ‘clicks’ and ‘bricks’ through its stores and existing online presence put SPAR in an excellent position, said Mentor. 
Mentor, which has worked with brands as diverse as the RAC, the National Deaf Children’s Society and Wales & West Utilities, said website technology was moving fast and customers expected high-quality, super-fast experiences across all devices.
Keeping users engaged with retail brands’ online offerings and remaining cutting edge and relevant was an ongoing challenge.
The agency is creating full mobile-responsive prototypes as part of the project, so allowing the sites to be fully user tested on mobile devices and desktops.
Mentor’s UX (user experience) testing team will then carry out mobile device guerrilla testing with specialist cameras for mobile devices and desktop UX testing, including using eye-tracking systems, to ensure that all user journeys are intuitive and clear.
SPAR and Mentor will also carry out an in-depth process of stakeholder engagement, user research, design and prototyping.
Mentor managing director Holland Risley, pictured, said: “We are absolutely delighted to be adding SPAR to our client portfolio and it really feels like we are levelling up as an agency taking on clients of this calibre.
“I think this really reflects the high quality of the work that we have been producing in recent years, along with the recent high-profile awards that we have won.
“The design work is already looking really exciting, we are focusing on bringing depth and quality to the sites by using micro UX, emotive design and parallax effects and we are really looking forward to launching the new look SPAR websites later this year.”
Mentor’s new SPAR websites will be developed using the open-source Umbraco CMS platform, which provides highly secure, enterprise level, content management experiences with no ongoing licenses.
Mentor Digital is an Umbraco Gold Partner and has implemented Umbraco CMS for many NHS Trusts and CCGs along with a wide range of B2B and B2C clients. The agency has won awards at the prestigious Umbraco awards in 2020 and 2021.
