Training the next generation in food retail

Once upon a time, the world of artisan food was a family affair. Skills passed from generation to generation, children taking over the family business, and a world of informal, personal, ‘on-the-job’ training delivered on a daily basis as youngsters accepted the mantle from their parents or mentors. That still exists, but times are also a-changing. Artisan food is open to anyone - young or old. People are switching careers later in life - passionate food fans with zero background or link to food deciding it’s the world they want to be in. And there’s a plethora of formal training and education opportunities available to them.

But while access to careers in artisan food may arguably be easier than ever, does that necessarily mean the industry is attracting as many people as it needs? With regular reminders of how difficult it is to make small business work in general, plus the unique challenges facing retailers in food, from rising costs to changing consumer trends, is it still a coveted career? And if so, how do we ensure that the next generation of artisan food retailers are best placed to carry the industry forwards and ensure not just its survival, but its success?

Ask any retailer, and they’ll agree that having the right people is key to success. With many small business owners busy running their shop, there’s little time to actually sell, which means it has to be a team effort. But finding the right staff isn’t always easy, admits Marcus Carter,  founder of Artisan Food Club. “That’s the tricky part,” he says. “It’s just like the food service industry - finding good people is hard.”

Sometimes those people might be right there in front of you, in the form of family members or friends. But when they’re not, where do you go? For Russell Allen, managing director at Aubrey Allen, if you can’t find people with readymade food retail experience, a good place to start that might not initially spring to mind is the hospitality industry. “If you’ve got someone who’s worked in a restaurant or pub and maybe doesn’t want to do the hours they involve, then it’s a good natural fit,” he says. “I often look for people who have got hospitality industry experience because they understand how to make people welcome. If they understand how to sell a specials board in a gastropub, they will understand how to tell people about certain product lines that you want to push. I think they’re more likely to engage with the customer or guests than someone who has worked in other forms of retail.”

In some areas, it might be easier to find the right people, but in others it’s slim pickings, says Carter, which is why leading from the top and providing the right training and education is absolutely essential. For him, artisan retail is all about “experience and personality”, with customers keen to build a connection with the people they’re buying from - whether that’s a butcher who remembers their name, a deli owner who knows their likes and dislikes, or a cheesemonger whose joke they remember years down the line.

“Managers and owners are busy. By the time they’ve opened the shop and got everything ready, it’s suddenly lunchtime, and then it’s time to start packing up, and then it’s 5pm, and then the doors are shut. Meanwhile, 100 people have been through the shop.” Being so busy means the bar-type environment referred to in the iconic Cheers theme song, ‘Where Everybody Knows Your Name’ - the same environment that makes customers fall in love with certain retailers - just can’t happen, says Carter. Some establishments, including bigger chains, manage to create that kind of environment. But only through having the right kind of staff with the right approach, and providing them with the right training and education that makes them helpful, talkative, and capable of providing the ‘led’ customer experience that is so important in artisan food. 

For Brian Williams, head of sales at John Farrer & Co Tea and Coffee Merchants, the growing focus of retailers in capitalising on a point of difference or unique identity means it’s more important than ever to ensure the people taking on the mantle - whether as staff or the next generation of those running the show - are right for the job, and have the right education and training.

“People are still very much foodies, and on an increasing scale social media is playing a huge part both promoting and fuelling this growth,” he says. “Artisan food retailing is a particular segment of the industry with lots of producers trying to vie for space in a somewhat crowded space, to create a point of difference that helps them stand out from their competitors, whether that’s an original product, an interesting collaboration, the latest potential trend, celebrity endorsement or simply a family-run business that is fully invested in its customers. Very often you’ll find that many of these small businesses are the brainchild of close friends or collaborative partnerships rather than purely just family businesses being passed from generation to generation.”

With new businesses looking to cash-in on a point of difference, a niche product or a unique identity, ‘terroir retailing’ - a focus on products linked to a specific geography - is even more important, and conveying that is down to product knowledge and training, he says. “Without it most people end up flying blind and rapidly come unstuck, especially when they come up against a competitor who has taken the time to share their knowledge and train their team properly.”

The retailers who have taken that time and put in that effort have created a “significant point of difference”, says Williams, and along with it a distinct business advantage. “You wouldn’t go into a wine merchants if the staff had no knowledge of the product they were selling. Training instils confidence from a buyer’s perspective, and this converts into sales – knowledge is the key to increased sales across the board because it’s part and parcel of customer service experience.”

When it comes to training, there are more options than ever before. From the widely lauded School of Artisan Food, to courses specifically aimed at artisan food production, and even initiatives including the Academy of Cheese, there are plenty of resources available for retailers to access in order to invest in their successors - whether they be family or employees. But the growth in formal training isn’t the only way - with ‘on the job’ education and engagement still playing a huge part in passing on the knowledge and tactics that are vital in selling in such a specific sector.

Aubrey Allen has provided extra education via schemes like the Academy of Cheese, but Allen says it doesn’t stop there, and training can be as basic as simply encouraging staff to sample what they’re selling. “You have to say, ‘look, come and try this and tell people about it’. Get people enthused about what they’re selling.” Part of this also involves bringing producers into the shop, or maybe providing staff with a mentor within the business - someone more experienced who can work with them on an informal business but guide and educate them. “We’ve taken team members to see cheese being made and that sort of thing, which always works well if you can do it, to get them to have an understanding of the product. But the main thing is getting to try stuff, sometimes just giving people license to try anything that they want is a good way of doing it. They can’t be enthusiastic about selling something they haven’t really tried.”

We might wonder why young people would even consider taking on the mantle from their predecessors. For Carter, changes in artisan food, including a shift to buying from wholesalers or focusing on only local producers, has potentially taken the excitement out of the role for staff and owners. “I think for foodies it’s still an attractive industry to be in, but can potentially be a bit depressing, I imagine, when you’re just putting the same things out on the shelf week in week out. It’s not really inspiring staff to get involved, because it’s either all ‘local’ or all through the same wholesalers, so the staff haven’t really got anything exciting to talk about.”

However, ask Allen if he thinks the future is bright for the next generation of artisan food retailers and his answer is a resounding yes. “Things might be changing but people are not going to change their habits. They might just slightly change their spend or their frequency. Going on Saturday morning to a shop or a deli or for a loaf of sourdough or some cheese is not going to break the bank, and it’s something that you can still enjoy that is relatively reasonably priced. So that means there will always be a place for these kinds of shops and the people who work in them.”

It’s clear that the perennial problems of finding staff and making sure they’re the right people with the right training are as key to securing the next generation of artisan retailers as they are for any other sector. But while it might be difficult, it’s certainly not impossible, and with the current generation of owners and experts as keen to ensure the survival of delis, farm shops, cheesemongers and other retailers as anyone else, the future is in safe hands.