Mentoring
ACS is delighted to offer a mentoring scheme for its members to gain free advice from prominent retailers in the sector. Please direct any questions to hannah.williams@acs.org.uk and they will be forwarded on to the mentor that you wish to hear from. Profiles of the retailer mentors are below.
Jonathan James
Jonathan has been a retailer for 11 years. Over that time he has gained considerable knowledge in both community and forecourt retailing.
His strengths lie around working with the community as a whole as well as ensuring publicity is gained locally for doing so.
He has an excellent understanding of working in partnership with wholesalers and suppliers as well as harnessing the support of local Government.
He has implemented several innovative initiatives to improve staff morale.
Region: Cambridgeshire
Website: www.jamesgraven.com
Dean Holborn
Dean has been involved in the convenience sector for the last 26 years, first working alongside his parents who started the business back in 1974.
Having taken over the reigns in 1994, Dean has grown the business and is now running two successful stores with a combined turnover of 1.7 million pounds per year.
Region: Surrey
Tom West
A publican/retailer, Tom built his first shop in 2008, learning all facets involved in opening a new business and shop.
Tom also uses social media to grow his sales both in store and from his online store.
With a background in Pubs, Tom uses his knowledge of catering to offer a fresh in store sandwich counter.
Region: Ipswich
Paul Cheema
Growing up in a retail environment, Paul lives and breathes convenience retailing and has accumulated a vast experience and knowledge of the sector having taken a leading role with his brother Pinder in running the family store since leaving school. From stocking the right products at the right prices to appeal to his loyal customer base through to delivering top class customer service by going that extra mile to engage and harness that loyalty, Paul is a dedicated customer champion.
Paul is also the 2011 Community Heroes and Premier Club Store Challenge winner.
Region: Coventry
Patrick Sewell
Patrick is a Sewell Group main board director and managing director of Sewell Retail Ltd.
The Sewell Group in varying guises has been a Hull company for over 132 years. The company today are a multi-disciplined organisation with expertise across Investment, Development, Construction, Facilities Management and Retail.
This year, Sewell Retail was recognized as one of the top ten companies to work for in the UK, according to the Sunday Times list.
Region: Hull
Website: www.sewell-retail.co.uk/
Rav Garcha
Rav is currently running four stores in the Midlands area; Shrewsbury, Birmingham, Walsall & Broadway, all acquired within the last three years.
Having spent time away from the business at DeMontford University in Leicester, Rav graduated and worked in London for a German independent financial advice firm.
However, he soon felt the pull back into the family business, which back then was a small off-license in Halesowen, Birmingham. From this point onward the business expanded rapidly over two years to the present day of four stores including a running post office with two more in development for 2011/2012.
Region: Birmingham
Kishor Patel
Kishor was born in Kenya and arrived in the UK in 1974. He graduated in 1985 in Accounting & Finance at Middlesex University. He purchased his first retail store in 1985, since then the company has acquired 6 further stores, an Indian Takeaway and in process or taking over its first Post Office store. Currently the company is turning over £8m per annum excluding services.
Kishor’s brother Pat is a 50% partner in the company and equally committed in growing the company, between them they have over 60 years of retail experience and have won several trade accolades to recognize their hard work and commitment to retailing.
Region: Bedfordshire
Any advice provided is free and made in good faith based on the knowledge and experience of the "adviser" as a convenience store retailer and not as an expert. Where specialist advice is required, particularly if economic loss might be involved, an expert in the field should be consulted.