Out of Control?

Speciality Bites with

Paul Hargreaves

Chief executive of Cotswold Fayre

• Becoming a B Corp
• Top trend predictions for Christmas 2021
• Self-sacrifice: The importance of building a leadership legacy centred on others
• Undercover Boss
• Can/should bosses really be close friends with their staff?

I am writing this on a plane over the Atlantic on the way to the New York Fancy Food Show via the Dominican Republic

It brings to mind a conversation I had earlier this week with a close friend about flying and the fear of flying.  My theory on this is that the fear of flying largely afflicts those that need to be on control – and there is no fear as such of being in the air, just the fear of not being at the controls!  I guess the theory would be tested out by taking such people out in my car and subjecting them to some exciting driving!  I’ll try it one day!

Whilst waiting for this delayed flight, I was thinking about whether the fear of losing control and trusting others sometimes holds us back in our businesses.  The very nature of those people we supply (retailers) is that they are independent by name and possibly by nature too.  The reason some of us going into business is to “be our own boss” and not being reliant on others for success.  This thinking lead me down the road of thinking about the very nature of both the wholesaler-retailer and the producer-wholesaler relationship.  Implicit in both is actually relinquishing control and trusting others (or other companies) to do some of our work for us – and in doing so make ourselves more efficient.

I was dialoguing earlier this week with a customer who was insistent on buying a new range of products direct from the producer when we could supply the same products for less – and the producer didn’t actually want to get into direct supply anyway!  Very puzzling, and actually out of character with this particular customer, who has generally realised that buying a whole range of products through wholesalers massively reduces their own staff’s time, and so allows them to be more customer-focused rather than spending their whole time ordering stock, receiving deliveries or paying invoices.  I have no idea what was going on in this particular situation as nothing made sense from a business perspective.

Earlier this year I spent some time with a well-known convenience store wholesaler and it was fascinating to learn that almost all the stock for many convenience shops is delivered on one multi-temperature vehicle.  Of course we don’t want all independent speciality food retailers to look the same, but surely there is a need for more consolidation to take place in the supply-chain to retailers.  I must say it frustrates the hell out of me to be in some customers and see countless deliveries being made of one or two cardboard boxes, and the amount of wasted staff time that represents.  How much more efficient is it to have over 100 boxes ordered and delivered in one hit.  Of course I would say that, wouldn’t I, being a wholesaler!  Apart from anything else it is an very environmentally-unfriendly way of supplying your shop.  It is far more efficient and green to have large amounts of stock moving around the UK rather than individual parcels.

We have our bi-annual Supplier’s Conference coming up on 10th July – and no doubt this subject may well come up!  How many times have we been told by suppliers that they are “trusting” Cotswold Fayre to manage all their UK independent business to find that they have held onto some favourite customers and even supplied some who have come to them direct.  I can only assume they think they can do a better job than us in sales, distribution and customer support!  If that’s the case then I may as well get this plane to turn round and go home again! Why would we want to propagate a model that leads to inefficiencies in retailers?  Not only that, but it results in a negative psychological effect on the sales team, but that is a whole other story that I will save for another time!

Hopefully you will hear more from me whilst I am away!