The Great Atlantic and Pacific Company of Canada has decided to fly with Air Miles and unite all its brands under one loyalty program.

Air Miles travel miles can now be collected on grocery purchases at the 180 stores A&P Company operates in Ontario under the a&p, Dominion, Super Fresh, Ultra Food & Drug and Miracle Food Mart banners.

The Food Basics franchised division is not part of the program.

Air Miles collectors will get one travel mile for every $20 spent on grocery purchases on a cumulative basis over a one-week period.

Bill Sheine, A&P Company’s vice-president of marketing, says store employees are very excited about the program and in addition to new bags, signage and banners announcing Air Miles, they are busy decorating the stores with extras such as airplane murals on the front windows and planes made from grocery carts suspended from the ceiling.

Customers are being signed on to become Air Miles collectors in all the stores and there is no waiting period. Cards are available for immediate use and are branded with a&p store logos on the back.

Sign-up kits include eight added-value coupons from other Air Miles sponsors.

Advertising, announcing the latest Air Miles sponsor, is currently underway.

The Loyalty Group of Toronto (previously Loyalty Management Group Canada), operator of the Air Miles Reward Program, is running a launch spot in Ontario over the next four weeks calling attention to the newest member of the program.

There is also a direct mail component with the program’s quarterly newsletter and additional mailings.

Wunderman Cato Johnson and Young & Rubicam handle advertising for The Loyalty Group.

Other Air Miles sponsors, including Shell, Goodyear, Bank of Montreal, Japan Camera and Blockbuster Video, are welcoming a&p with posters, in-store signage and brochure handouts.

In addition to its flyers, A&P Company is running radio spots from Bozell Retail.

Media placement is handled by TN Media, a division of Optimedia.

The Air Miles Reward Program has been without a supermarket sponsor in Ontario since Oshawa Group pulled out its iga, Food City and Price Chopper stores in 1994, after two years with the program.

Canada Safeway in the west has been with Air Miles since the beginning and iga in Atlantic Canada joined shortly after.

Loblaws recently stopped its year-long test of Air Miles that included four stores in the London, Ont. area. Loblaws is said to be close to launching its own program designed by Value Exchange, a new Toronto-based company specializing in customer base investment management and loyalty programs for individual firms or groups of companies.

A Loblaws spokesperson was unavailable for comment and Glenn Kaul, managing director of Value Exchange, would not comment, saying the company works under strict confidentiality agreements with all clients.

A&P Company almost filled Oshawa Group’s place on the Air Miles roster five years ago but instead opted to start its own loyalty program.

At the time, Sheine says, the company didn’t believe travel was a major motivator for its customers, and felt it would take a significant period of time to collect enough miles to travel.

The Air Miles structure has since changed and as few as 20 or 35 points can be redeemed for lifestyle rewards such as Blue Jays tickets, movie tickets, long distance phone time, and for 100 Air Miles a new reward is being offered – a $20 coupon for one of the A&P Company stores.

Sheine says that, while operating its own program, the company came to believe in the importance of loyalty programs for rewarding customers as well as building one-on-one relationships through direct mail communication.

In addition to regular mailings of special offers to customers and to advise of new store openings, he says A&P Company used its program to reward customers with electronic couponing and automatic contest entry.

While it had been a success, Sheine says the main problem was the company was operating four programs – a different one for each chain brand – and it was also considering the start-up of one for Super Fresh.

Air Miles was the answer to that problem, says Sheine.

It still allows A&P Company to do everything it did with its own program while offering even more to its customers.

In addition, he says, Air Miles has helped to put the finishing touch on a banner consolidation launched by A&P Company last year, when it repositioned all its brands under the theme line, The Savings Stores.

Sheine says the repositioning has meant the end of duplicated efforts such as separate advertising and flyer programs – and now loyalty programs – for each brand.

The efficiency, he says, has resulted in the number of flyers alone being reduced from six million to four million per week.