Store Visits with our President Helen Wiseman

The highlights for this week have been visiting stores with our President Helen Wiseman. I was interested to hear of her trip last week to attend the Cooperatives Europe General Assembly that was held in Strasbourg, the seat of the European Parliament.

Helen mentioned to me that there was a lot of interest from delegates about our Society activities and the businesses that we are running. They had also learnt of the appointment of a Chief Values Officer, which as mentioned in my previous blog, is Peter Westall’s new role and they were impressed with our commitment to our values in this way.

Helen said, “Alongside the formal governance elements of the General Assembly; it was an opportunity to meet with our fellow Cooperators from across Europe, share ideas and establish new relationships. It was a pleasure to be greeted as an old friend by Niklas Widebeck from Sweden who had joined us at our AGM just last month."

During the visits on Wednesday, we went to several different trading sites, starting at Thame where we met Martina Crispin, who has just been appointed as Store Manager, a great step for her at the age of 21. We then popped into our Thame Travel branch and the Funeralcare branch next door, and then onto Beaconsfield Funeralcare, where we met Jo Hoskins. We had a great conversation with her about supporting her in her role and we also met Bernice Steeples, who was our first Personal Funeral Planner.

Our President Helen Wiseman meeting Martina Crispin at Thame Food Store (left) and Bernice Steeples & Jo Hoskins at Beaconsfield Funeralcare (right)

Our next stop was Hazelmere food, where it was great to hear from store manager, Jon Little, on all of the improvements he and his team had made to the store there, focussing specifically on food availability and customer service, as well implementing the Kronos system that is working well. Whilst we were in Hazelmere, we also dropped in to see Alison Lewis in Funeralcare. Alison cares passionately about her clients and is a great example of a Colleague who goes to great lengths to ensure every detail is perfect.

Helen meeting Alison Lewis at Hazelmere Funeralcare (left) and Jon Little at Hazelmere Food Store (right)

A personal highlight for me was Downley Food store where we met with Sarah Powell who had baked two fantastic cakes. If anyone needs a tip on how to attract the attention of the President and the Group CEO to visit their sites, then Sarah can help with some top baking tips!

More importantly, both Helen and I were blown away by the effort that Sarah and her team had put into community work and building links with key community stakeholders, particularly the schools in the area. Sarah and her Colleagues talked with great passion on ideas about supporting the local community and playing their part in regional community activities. She went on to invite me to take part in a ‘sleep out’ in High Wycombe in November, in support for homeless people and I am minded to accept her invitation, so as long as there is cake and hot soup to go with it.

 Sarah Powell and the Team at Downley Food Store

Later in the day I popped into our Wheatley Food store and met with Store Manager, Haidar Ali Bokhari and some of his team. I was very impressed with this bustling village store.

Myself and Store Manager, Haidar Ali Bokhari at Wheatley Food Store

One of my clear aims is to spend more time visiting our trading operations, so if any of you would particularly like Helen and I to visit your site, please use the comments below to let us know and of course, cake is optional!

That is all from my blog this week, if you enjoyed reading what I have been up to, feel free to me know your comments below!