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So here’s the plan…
2010 | Filed under This Months Features | (0) 
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As the Henderson Group closes the door on another year of growth in difficult circumstances, it also welcomes a newcomer – Recruited from high street giant, M&S, Nigel Gray is promising much in terms of customer engagement and a revitalised consumer experience…
It’s always useful to have the edge – essential, perhaps, in times of economic hardship. And those who inhabit the relentlessly competitive world of convenience retailing here know well that differentiating your offering from those of rival operators will eventually spell the difference between those brands which prosper and those which feel the sting of the cash-strapped consumers’ disfavour.
It’s a simple truth, but it’s been the guiding principal sitting at the heart of daily operations in Northern Ireland’s leading symbol retailer and wholesale supplier for four generations. For the Mallusk-based Henderson Group – which currently oversees more than 420 stores here under the SPAR, EUROSPAR, VIVO and VIVOXTRA brands - safeguarding consumer confidence is paramount, and it’s worked hard over many years to secure its dominance of this cluttered local market.
That commitment to an ethos of progressive change is readily evident in the level of investment across the group’s extensive portfolio - £14m was spent on maintaining and improving both the company-owned and independent estates in 2009 and a further £20m has been earmarked for the same purpose this year – including ‘knock down/rebuild’ schemes on six existing store sites.
Paddy Doody, sales and marketing director for the group, describes the year just gone as “exceptionally good” for Hendersons. And although he concedes that the trading environment has been “tougher”, there has been tangible progress, including the migration of 17 stores from the Mace brand by Q4 and the signing in September of a five-year, £200m deal to convert convenience stores at 29 Maxol forecourts in the province to Spar outlets. As part of that collaboration, Maxol is also supplying fuel to 13 Henderson-owned service stations which have been branded with Maxol imagery.
Speaking towards the end of December, Doody told Ulster Grocer that he expected to finish the year with growth pegged at around 14 per cent, and all-important like-for-like growth among both company-owned and independent retailers of about 3.4 per cent.
To understand how that has been achieved, it’s important to grasp the essentially holistic nature of the insight upon which the group has based its strategy – this is a family-run, indigenous business, the actions of which do not require the approval of share-holders or the authority of some far-flung central office. Instead, Henderson’s has focused its effort on one-to-one relationships within its own business, building close ties with retailers, suppliers and consumers. And, it’s been free to rely on its own well-informed and perceptive interpretation of market trends within this most complex of retail sectors.
The success of that approach is evident in, for example, the popularity of the new Spar Value range – important household items, economically packaged and available at very low prices – a direct response to current, harsh economic realities. But look too at Henderson’s decision in mid-2008 to revitalise its entire approach to the marketing of fresh produce in-store. The category was seen as a critical indicator of the quality to be found in the rest of the shop and so the whole process by which fruit and veg was sourced, delivered and presented to the consumer was re-assessed – and Healey Martin was recruited from multiple giant Asda to head up the effort for the independent estate.
“It’s been a tremendous success”, reports Paddy Doody. “Fresh fruit and produce sales are up by 18 or 19 per cent in turnover and 11 per cent in volume, which reflects all the hard work that’s been done, from looking at processes at the back door to product location, quality control and procedures generally.”
BOLD
All of this is about gaining that edge over the competitor, but perhaps one of the boldest moves which the group made in 2009 was the appointment of Nigel Gray as its new retail director with responsibility for the company-owned estate.
Gray comes with an unrivalled pedigree, having worked for retail giant Marks and Spencer since 1990, most recently as regional manager for Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man.
He has a wealth of experience, particularly in the fresh produce category, and Paddy Doody admits that when he heard Gray had been appointed to the new post at Hendersons, he felt they’d really “struck it lucky”:
“Quality of product and fresh produce are all key strengths for M&S and areas which we will continue drive forward here at Hendersons”, he says.
Gray himself has been in post since August of last year and speaking to this magazine recently, he said that he’d decided to accept the position with Henderon’s for three personal reasons:
“Primarily, I wanted an opportunity to move up the corporate ladder”, he admits. “But I was also after a role that I thought was going to be a stretch for me and which would have a learning opportunity associated with it – that’s been the case here. Furthermore, I’ve always been honest with myself in that I wanted to have fun in whatever job I am doing, and I’ve certainly been able to do that within Hendersons over the last four or five months here.”
Gray says too, he onlyleftM&S because he was moving to a retailer that was “number one” in its market segment:
“[Henderson’s] in its totality, has been very successful and I’ve come in with my own ideas, background and approach.. I’ve encountered a business that has an aggressive and effective growth plan and I intend to build on that, rather than fundamentally change things at this stage.”
WARM
Gray declares himself “staggered” by the warmth of the welcome he received on his arrival at Mallusk:
“This business is built on strong family values and that’s something I felt very strongly about when I left M&S, where those clear values are also important”, he explains. “I often hear people say that family-run businesses have lots of downsides, but that’s not been my experience here. Without exception [the Agnew family] have all been very supportive of me, keen to talk to me about the business I’ve left and to hear my thoughts taking things forward.”
In fact, Gray says that the emphasis laid on business ethics by the Henderson Group is one of the biggest similarities that he’s noticed between the local company and his previous employer:
“Henderson’s is a business that revolves around its people and the communities in which it trades - M&S is the same”, he remarks. “That’s reflected very much in the importance placed on corporate social responsibility and in making sure that the business is doing right by the people that it employs.”
There are four key ‘building bricks’ in the development strategy which Nigel Gray is proposing. He says that customer impressions will be a key consideration, but he’ll also be concerning himself with the quality of fresh produce sold in stores and with improving the overall shopping experience:
“Like Paddy, I believe that there’s a big opportunity to drive the marketing of fresh produce forward in our stores in partnership with our local producers”, he explains. “You look at the multiples and how they promote their support of local produce and yet it’s not on the same level as the Henderson Group - I would like to make that a better known fact.”
He goes on:
“I’m a firm believer that if you get the environment in your stores right, then people are going to come in and buy the products”, he says. “And buy more than they would otherwise have done.”
Customer service will be another key touch point for the new retail director:
“I think that I can help Henderson’s build on their success by building on customer service and engagement on the sales floor, at the till points and on the forecourts, which are now a significant part of our business.”
And he adds:
“This is an area where we can fundamentally put distance between ourselves and our competition. We’re a convenience retailer at the heart of our community and the people who work for us are a part of those communities. By building a stronger relationship with them and with the customers we serve, then we’re making our intentions clear in a strong and differentiating way.”
Moving into the future, Nigel Gray is keen to see the group build on what’s been achieved so far:
“This business is a very successful one in all the key areas in which it trades, and so it’s not about fundamentally shaking things up, it’s about evolution”, he says. “There is no doubt about it, the future is going to be challenging and we want to make sure that our products and our pricing stay as strong as they have been, and we want to ensure that our proposition remains strong enough to withstand the threat of a very strong competitive marketplace.”
He concedes, however, that there will be challenges, not least the threat of encroachment from the ever-present multiples and the difficulties of planning for growth in a region with a finite, fixed population and a private sector that has been disproportionally impacted upon by the economic downturn and a public sector which undoubtedly will be hit by spending cuts.
That said, Nigel Gray expects the Henderson Group to retain its leading position in the years ahead:
“I want us to be seen as a retailer who invests in its estate and in its people,” he says, “and I want this to be a place where consumers experience something which is different and very positive. The message going forward, I think, is very simple and it’s based on customer engagement. That’s something we just can’t afford to get wrong.”
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