Companies to Watch: Welbee’s unleashes the big guns with its double cashback offer

It comes as no surprise to anyone that the Christmas season is the busiest time of year for retail, and for Miguel Borg, Marketing Manager at Welbee’s, it’s when months of planning come to fruition. Miguel and his team work towards one goal: to deliver an excellent shopping experience for their customers by offering the best cashback offer on the island.

Miguel, 32, represents the third generation of a proud Maltese retail legacy. His family’s journey began 75 years ago with Tower Supermarket in Sliema, one of Malta’s pioneering large-scale grocery stores.

“Growing up amidst shelves and aisles, I quickly absorbed the ethos of quality service and the importance of creating a community connection,” Miguel shares as he reflects on his family’s link to the business. Having graduated in Marketing from the University of Malta, Miguel today plays an important part in the consolidated Welbee’s brand, which brought together four distinct local grocery businesses and legacy supermarkets under one unified brand. Today, Retail Marketing Ltd proudly owns and operates ten Welbee’s Supermarkets across Malta, employs over 500 people, and collaborates with local suppliers and importers.

“Despite intensifying competition, 2024 has been a successful year for Welbee’s,” he continues. “Some of our key achievements this year included launching a new outlet at the newly opened Shoreline shopping mall – the first one in the south of the island, introducing a revamped, more generous cashback scheme, and launching our new online website -welbees.mt. Our cashback programme, which has been expanded to give customers up to eight per cent back on their purchases, is widely regarded as the most generous on the island.”

In fact, over the festive season, Welbee’s doubles its cashback offer, giving more back to customers and reflecting the chain’s commitment to rewarding its loyal patrons, especially at Christmas time – but more on that later!

“Our investment in a new online shopping platform, Welbees.mt, plays a crucial part in our strategy to remain ahead of the curve. The revamped website is mobile-optimised, offering better search functionality, detailed product and nutritional information, as well as the same loyalty benefits and cashback found instore. This aligns perfectly with our mission to make grocery shopping as enjoyable and pleasant an experience as possible, while also retaining the same pricing to the brick and mortar stores, and being eco-friendly,” Miguel explains. This last point is taken especially seriously, as the supermarket chain endeavours to lead the way in environmental consciousness, and sustainability taking the bold step of delivering groceries in recyclable bags, which can also be used for recycling disposal.

“Customer engagement remains the cornerstone of Welbee’s success. In today’s digital economy, engagement goes beyond likes and impressions,” Miguel explains. “It is about creating genuine connections with our customer base, whom we know very well – some of whom have been with us for many decades!”

Welbee’s employs a range of strategies to personalise the shopping experience. For instance, their loyalty app tailors offers to the preferences of individuals, ensuring customers receive promotions relevant to their specific profiles. “It’s useless sending a promotion for a particular product to someone who’s not interested in that category,” Miguel elaborates. “Through data analysis, we study our customers’ behaviours, effectively creating a relationship with them.

This allows us to understand them better and offer unparalleled service.” In the same way, lost customers are identified early on and offered targeted incentives to return.

However, the cornerstone of Welbee’s customer-centric efforts remains its famous cashback offering, which stands out as a flagship initiative on the island. Leveraging a focused marketing strategy to stand out from the competition and deliver value to customers, Welbee’s launched a strong online and outdoor campaign in prominent areas on the island, featuring the slogan: ‘Double the cashback, double the joy.’

“Running from the 6th to the 28th of December, our cashback offer gives customers double the amount of money back on all purchases. That means whereas usually customers receive €3 for every €50 spent, €8 for every €100, €11 for every €150, and €16 for every €200, now these amounts have all doubled. So, customers will be receiving €6, €16, €22, and €32 respectively,” Miguel asserts.

Additional festive promotions include competitions to win a Vespa, as seen on the front page of the specially produced Christmas catalogue,  as well as a series of €100 vouchers for selected products and slashed discounts on well known branded spirits. Furthermore, in its drive to be the foremost local grocery chain, Welbee’s also collaborates with local businesses to enhance the customer experience.

“We are great believers in supporting local, as we strive to nurture a healthy corporate culture that bolsters local industries. That is why we also offer countless promotions at local restaurants, discounted eCab rides to promote responsible partying at Christmas time, and other entraintment activities such as gravity at the Shoreline Mall. Our dedication to adding value to customers extends beyond the grocery aisle.”

Welbee’s commitment to innovation is evident in all of its operational choices. The use of digital price tags at the Shoreline outlet, soon to be expanded across all other stores, is one example. “Furthermore, we remain set to be at the forefront of innovation by introducing new ways of making the shopping experience more enjoyable and convenient, especially through e-commerce, and continuous updates on the app,” asserts Miguel.

Through the app, customers can also donate their loyalty points to NGOs, converting them into funds to support charitable causes. The list of eligible NGOs continues to grow, as the Male Cancer Association, amongst others, was added last November.

Moreover, Welbee’s operates ethically even in its everyday operations. “As a grocery chain, we are adamant not to engage in parallel trading, purchasing our goods and products from local and established importers whenever possible, without cutting out the middleman. In fact, the direct importation we do engage in is for products that are imported exclusively by us, widening our range of products and adding more value for our customers. Our importers and distributors remain an important link in our value chain, and we make it a point to value their contribution to our operation and the local economy.”

For Miguel, giving back to the community is more than a CSR exercise, and extends further than monetary contributions. “This year, Welbee’s offered discounted medical services at St James Hospital to raise awareness about men’s health. Similarly, our Pink October events raised significant funds for breast cancer research,” Miguel continues.

As Welbee’s enters 2025, Miguel is optimistic about the future.

“It’s not just about selling groceries; it’s about building relationships, giving back to the community, prioritising sustainablitiy, and creating a shopping experience that our customers truly value,” Miguel concludes.

This interview forms part of the Companies to Watch in 2024, a business serialisation of BusinessNow.mt, Malta’s fastest-growing, cutting-edge business news portal, aimed at companies achieving their goals, marking important milestones, or planning to announce major business news.

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