We have partnered with Prio, a disruptive Portuguese petrol company and forecourt retailer, on a major nationwide redesign and roll-out to hero the service offer and completely update and futureproof the physical structure, creating an engaging customer experience and best-in-class convenience retailing concept. Introducing Prio &Pronto.
Prio Energy is a relatively new player in Portugal’s energy market, with a store portfolio of over 250 shops across the nation.
Service has always played a large part of Prio’s offer, with a high percentage of profit coming from food service offered in store.
Following our appointment, we were given the opportunity to bring Prio’s store identity up to modern standards, both aesthetically and in terms of robustness, and to also enhance the food service environment to hero the food and drink available instore. We delivered this inside a new brand concept called Prio &Pronto, complete with a full suite of brand applications and an interior concept fit for the next decade.
There have been a number of core challenges involved with completing this project that we have successfully overcome. First, the Covid 19 pandemic has meant that our team have been forced to leave the studio and work in a distributed fashion.
Next, the core tension of the project delivery is that it needs to maintain exceptional aesthetic qualities, while being robust enough to take high levels of footfall without wear and tear. Finally, the design solution needs to be cost-effective.
A third and final challenge for this project is that the Prio store estate is composed of a number of different unit sizes, meaning that the design solution would need to be able to scale up and down, depending on the location.
Creating a new design for Prio’s store estate has been a challenge that our team has risen to. Our concept is a modern approach to forecourt retailing, drawing heavily from the convenience sector to create a food service environment that is warm, welcoming and gives a great customer experience.
We also took on board Prio’s three core brand values: cheaper, further, better, to ensure that every element of the concept, brand and applications were driven by these principles.
Putting this all together, we delivered a design response that encapsulates the full product mix, enhances the existing food to go offer, highlights the profitable tobacco and e-cigarette offer, and redesigns the customer journey with a new zigzag queue system that is designed specifically to improve impulse purchases in the stations.
We produced a hard-wearing, cost-effective and contemporary design that is going to be a fantastic brand asset for the next decade. The hand-painted turquoise Portuguese tiles introduce the brand colour to the space without being overwhelming, meanwhile touches such as Gustaff timber plank ceiling system and fiberdeck timber slat effect to the exterior cladding bring an element of warmth and naturalness to the environment.
Hardwearing materials like the Osaka floor times applied to the accent seating area and the dark grey powder coated metal used in various finishes bring a robustness to the space, ensuring a high wear tolerance.
A list of the main suppliers we worked with on the project includes:
- Tegometall – shelving units
- Jordão – all refrigeration items
- Corian – solid surfaces
- Laminates from Egger and Formica
- Aleluia Cerâmicas – hand painted feature wall tiles
- Pedrali – chairs and stools
- Exporlux – Lighting fixtures throughout store
- BTC – feature pendant lights
- VIVES – All floor tiles (including OSAKA feature tiles)
- MARGRES – Exterior cladding tiles
- Fiberdeck – Exterior timber slat effect wall cladding
With the introduction of a new brand to Prio, our team created a brand new Prio &Pronto name, and we then produced the logomark and developed a suite of brand applications including signage and take away coffee cups and carrier bags.
Our team in London liaised with the client in Portugal, as well as with local architectural representation, Intergaup, who oversaw the roll-out in Portugal. We do most of our work internationally, so we are used to scheduling and communicating projects over email, phone and IM tools such as Microsoft Teams. We were also delighted with the way that our design team was able to produce all their work from home during lockdown, working from a remote server.
Finally, now that the concept has been created, signed off and developed into a final product, we are in the process of rolling it out across the total Prio estate, starting with a series of 4 trials, one for each main store formats.
We are very pleased to have been part of this project and are looking forward to continuing our relationship with Prio as we roll out more stores in the coming months.
A significant and innovative component of our new concept is the service area, which contains an ATM, self-service tills, self-service coffee/hot drinks machine and vending machines.
