In the last couple of months, not one but two of the men who ran the Scottish divisions of two of the UK biggest fascia groups decided to pack it all in to become retailers. SLR caught up with them to find out why.
By Antony Begley
To be fair, if you ask most ambitious people that have an involvement in supplying or servicing the local retailing sector, they’ll all admit that at one time or another they’ve considered chucking it all and having a go at retail themselves. For most, that dream remains just that – a dream – but in the last few weeks, by sheer coincidence, two of the men that ran the Scottish ‘region’ for two of the UK’s biggest fascia groups decided to hand in their notice, roll up their sleeves, and become retailers.
The highly respected duo of Londis Scottish boss Brian McCaughey and Batley’s Best-one boss Colin Smith have clearly seen the light and had the courage to act on their long-held desires. Brian has taken over the Londis forecourt and store in Inverary while Colin has hooked up with former Bellevue boss Graham Benson as well as David Sands to convert the Pinkie Mains Farm Store in Musselburgh into a spanking new store. So what is it that drove this ambitious, admired pair to ditch the poaching and try their hand at the gamekeeping? “Surely it’s the other way around,” laughs Brian. “Surely it’s gamekeeper-turned-poacher!” Whatever it is, Brian readily admits that he always had a hankering to get into retail and buy a shop for himself if the right opportunity ever arose. Brian’s fascination with retail began as the youngest ever manager of a Ratners jewellery store before moving on to Manor Bakeries where he remained for seven years. With Londis as one of his accounts, he learned that the symbol group wanted to get into the Scottish market in 2000 and needed someone to help, so he offered his services.
From a standing start he helped build the significant presence that Londis now holds in the Scottish market. “It was hard work and I put a lot into those 14 years,” he admits, “but it stood me in good stead for becoming a retailer. I was doing 60 hour weeks at Londis with mountains of travel. Now I still do 60 hour weeks but I don’t have the travel and I’m my own boss, so it’s been a life-changer.” And when he says life-changer, he means it. Brian and his wife Audre and their 19 year old son Conor have all quit their jobs and moved up from their previous home in Prestwick to begin a new life in Inverary, living in the house that’s attached to the business. Brian had already had a number of discussions with the previous owners to buy the store over the last few years but was finally asked if he wanted it recently.
With a long-held plan to own a store by 50 – he’s now 48 – Brian thought it would have been insane to refuse. Not surprisingly, the 1,400 sq ft store will remain a Londis and Brian is wholeheartedly positive about his former employers. Somewhat awkwardly, his main contact at Londis, now that he’s a retailer, is John Quinn, the last man he recruited while still with the wholesaler! “Yes, it’s a bit weird but John’s a good guy and he and the rest of the team at Londis have been fantastic in helping me hit the ground running,” he says.
Nominally, Brian runs operations, Conor handles stock management and Audre handles the back of house work. “Although, with your own store in Falkirk,” he says, “you’ll know that when it gets down to it you end doing whatever needs done whenever it needs done, so job descriptions go out of the window pretty quickly!” Having said that, Brian is an exquisitely organised man with, he is happy to admit, “very little patience”, so he is already building a structure that will allow all of the four full time and one part time staff the family employ to do all manner of tasks, including ordering and stock taking. “The shop has to be structured and ordered so that it doesn’t always need me or Audre or Conor around for things to run smoothly,” he says. The first few weeks have been “mental”, as you might expect, with a list of woes that seems all too familiar to the team at Woodlands Local: a flood, two power cuts, every fridge deciding to die at the same time, the locks on the front door jamming. “You fondly imagine you’re going to step in and be thinking about store-specific planograming and precise ranging and modern retailing concepts,” he chuckles. “When in fact we’ve spent most of our time dealing with minor disasters! But it’s all part of the fun.” building a future Meanwhile, over on the east coast, Colin Smith is not without his challenges too, albeit of a slightly different nature. Pinkie Mains Farm Shop was very successful going concern that had existed since the 1960s.
When it came up for sale, the high powered gang of Smith, Benson and Sands decided to go for it and, much to many people’s surprise, the previous owners preferred to sell to them than the supermarkets that were interested. “You’ve got to respect the previous owners, Lynne Todd and Billy Mackenzie, for being as good as their word and selling it to the small guys,” says Colin. “They could have sold it to the supermarkets but they said they wanted it to remain locally owned and they stuck to it – so I have to take my hat off to them.” Just like Brian, Colin has been steeped in the world of retail for as long as he can remember with senior positions at Costco, two separate stints at Bellevue Cash & Carry and, most recently, being the point man for Batleys in Scotland after they acquired Bellevue. His father had, at one point, run Scotland’s oldest family bakery and Colin had been involved in that too, so it’s fair to say he knows retail.
“I’ve spent most of my working life helping retailers so when this opportunity came along to become a retailer myself with guys like Graham and David, it was just too good to pass up,” he explains. And is he enjoying it? “Well, it’s only been open two days and I’ve about 12 hours sleep in three days, but I’d have to say that I’m loving it!,” he says emphatically. In common with our own experiences of opening Woodlands Local, Colin is quick top point out that he never fully grasped just how much work is involved in running a store. He says: “I’ve worked with retailers for a long time, I’ve been in and out of stores for years, but never really realised just how much work is involved. It’s non-stop and it’s difficult and it’s complicated, but it’s satisfying.” The store is a newbuild, so it’s the perfect shape and has been custom built, but opening a store, as most retailers will know, is a traumatic experience. But with the door’s now open, the hard work is already starting to pay off. “It was a great business before,” he says “but we’re intent on making it even better, and we’ve made a great start.”
