Two things I was involved with last week revealed a surprising connection. One was the launch of the ACS Rural Shop Report, and the other was a chat with Henry Armour, my counterpart at NACS in the USA, who was over here looking at some stores. Bear with me while I explain how these things are linked.
David joined Conviviality Retail in July 2016 as Managing Director to oversee the Bargain Booze, Select Convenience & Wine Rack businesses. Prior to Conviviality, David has worked in the retail sector for over 20 years, holding senior positions with a range of large organisations. David’s retail career started at Dixons Stores Group where he held roles within commercial and product marketing before joining Homebase to help lead their new large store format.
Christie & Co is a specialist business property adviser, providing brokerage, valuation and consultancy advice to a variety of sectors, including convenience retail. If you’re looking to buy or sell a business, our dedicated team of retail experts, including 18 agents and 23 RICS Registered Valuers, bring decades of experience to the entire buying and selling process. If you'd like to speak to us about your opportunities, please contact us on 020 7227 0759 or visit christie.com for more information.
Debbie Robinson is a passionate food marketer with over 25 year’s retail experience.
Debbie joined SPAR in 2011 and during that time has been instrumental in SPAR’s strategic ‘Delivering Growth’ 10 Point Plan. She has been closely involved in SPAR’s Round Pound campaign and for increasing penetration of fresh food throughout the SPAR estate. Debbie has also been working closely with the Marketing Team to deliver SPAR’s TV advertising campaign ‘SPAR There for You’.
Mike Igoe joined Heron Foods in the role of Commercial Director on 1st January 2013. His role includes overseeing the development of store formats, branding, merchandising and marketing throughout the company’s 240 store estate.
Mark Price joined the UK government as the Minister of State for Trade and Investment at the invitation of David Cameron in April 2016. He was made a life peer in February 2016 to become The Lord Price CVO and Baron Price of Sturminster Newton. Mark was reappointed by Theresa May to her post-Brexit Government, with specific responsibility for negotiating the UKs future trade deals. Dubbed ‘one of the nation’s favourite businessmen’ by the Independent, Mark was Managing Director of Waitrose for the preceding 9 years, and Deputy Chairman of The John Lewis Partnership for 3 years.
It’s been a big start to the year for plastic. Last week Theresa May’s speech on a long-term plan for the environment was heavily focused on how to cut back the use of plastic, and particularly to reduce plastic in the oceans. Now Iceland (the retailer, not the country in the North Atlantic, although maybe they will also be doing this at some point soon) has pledged to end plastic packaging on their own-brand products by 2023. Given that many of the products that you, as a convenience retailer, will stock are packaged in plastic, what does this mean for you?
You will I’m sure have been as shocked and appalled as me, our team here, and our members at the death of Vijay Patel, a retailer in Mill Hill, north London. First, the facts as we know them: late on Saturday night three teenagers tried to buy age restricted products, Mr Patel and a member of his team correctly refused the sale, and in response they were attacked. Mr Patel died as a result of the injuries he sustained, his colleague’s injuries are not life threatening.
One of the fun if slightly surreal parts of my job is responding to members and others asking me to forecast what’s going to happen next in politics. Such forecasts are always a bit of guesswork, and the best anyone can really do is analyse the factors at play and come up with some sort of rationale for what might happen next. I also have a rule that if you want to know what’s likely to happen in an election, listen to the person least connected with the Westminster village where rumours and granular message crafting and media spin cloud the fundamentals of how people in the country at la
