Out and about

It’s been another busy week for me. I’ve been out and about attending talks, Board meetings and visiting a number of stores, nurseries and funeral homes, meeting as many of you as possible.

Digital approach talk

Earlier in the week I attended a talk on digital innovation by Tamara Lohan, co-founder of the online travel business Mr and Mrs Smith. It was a great insight into how to reach travel customers in a digital age and how to build brand loyalty this way. It’s beneficial for us to take learnings from talks and other businesses as we continue to evolve in an ever-growing digital world.  

Site visits

My site visits started with a visit to Southampton Nursery where I met Karen, the nursery manager, and her team. They have built a great reputation for us on the South Coast and it was a real pleasure to see their operation. We chatted about all things to do with running the nursery, and it was interesting to gain more of an understanding of some of the challenges they face. I also enjoyed the same lunch as the children, a delicious pork and apple hot pot made by Alex, the deputy manager and part-time chef.  

Nicole, Area Manager, and Karen, Nursery Manager

It was also great to visit our food store and funeral home at Stow-on-the-Wold with our Society president Helen Wiseman. Helen and I meet up regularly to update each other on all Society matters outside of the formal Board meetings and committees. We both feel that it is important to spend time with our colleagues at the front end of our business to keep in touch with what’s going on. It also offers an opportunity for colleagues to meet Helen and ask her about her views and thoughts about our business.

Helen (2nd from right) with Ron, Stephen and Ann, Area Manager

My final visits of the week involved a number of food stores including Bourton, Chipping Norton, Summertown and Iffley Road with Colin Macleod, the CEO of the Channel Islands Co-operative Society. They operate in both Guernsey and Jersey in mainly Food stores, but also in Funeral, Travel, Pharmacy and Post Office.

One of the best things about being a Coop is the opportunity we have to talk, interact and work alongside other Co-operatives. Colin and I share the same view that openness with other Coops is so important and we should continue to show a willingness to support each other. His visit allowed him to see what we are doing, get ideas, ask questions and challenge both of our ways of thinking.

Colin was very impressed with our cookery demonstration stations and we were served some delicious food, made from local produce, at our tasting stations in both Bourton and Chipping Norton. 

Colin enjoying some local produce in Chipping Norton

We stopped for lunch at one of our Chozen Noodle franchises in Summertown, where Colin and I enjoyed some more tasty food. 

By this point you may think we spent most of the day eating but I can assure you that wasn’t the case! One of the many topics we discussed was membership. The Channel Islands Coop currently have a member trade of 93%, which means 93% of their sales are to members, which is extraordinary. They have over 120,000 loyal and dedicated members to whom they offer a reward of 4p for every £1 of qualifying spend, which doubles to 8p on a Tuesday. At Midcounties we currently achieve a member trade participation of 42% across all of our trading groups. As part of our connected future strategy we have ambitious plans to significantly grow our member trade participation over the next 5 years so it is really important to speak with other Co-operatives that have a good track record in this area.   

During our last stop at Iffley Road, I met Muriam who has, this week, been promoted to Team Manager after being with us in store for 3 years. I also met Liam this week who is the manager of our Sussex Place store in Swindon and has just completed his 30 years’ service. Liam and Muriam highlight the span of management we have across the business. Congratulations to both! 

Thank you to all of the colleagues who I met whilst out with Colin, you were all very helpful and excellently showcased Team Midcounties.

FRTS Board Meeting

On Wednesday I was in Manchester at the Co-operative Group headquarters for a Board meeting of the Federal Retail Trading Services Limited (FRTSL). This is attended by the CEO’s of the eight largest Coops. The topics discussed this month included contingency planning for Brexit, the benefits of the NISA acquisition for the buying group, changing customer needs and a more collaborative approach to how we run Post Offices. Collectively, the coops are the second largest operators of Post Offices in the UK and we want to ensure we work together in making them as successful as possible and establish how we best adapt to the changing customer needs for products and services.

As always I want to hear from you. Whether it be a topic that you would like to hear me talk more about, a suggestion or something that is concerning you; make sure you let me know below.