As a young buyer, I was keen to secure the best deal and thus began a long and fruitful relationship with what is now Nisa-Today's. Over 28 years, I have seen many changes to the membership profile and the way that the Scunthorpe team have striven to be all things to all men in pursuit of securing economical supply and good deals for members and customers.
First there was the influx of wholesalers, then the need to develop central distribution as minimum drop quantities to individual stores started to rise and the large manufacturers took salesmen off the road.
Almost inevitably, large retailers started to take an interest in Nisa-Today's and there were raised eyebrows when the big boys arrived on the scene.
The CBC (Central Buying Company) was formed and enabled members both large and small to benefit from improved buying prices. Over the past two years a number of those large members have been bought out and CBC is no more.
So what happens next? From where I am sitting the next step must be for Nisa-Today's to square up to being able to think and act more like a retailer and the proposed merger with Costcutter into one company provides a platform and backing that will fully flex the best elements of both enterprises.
I sense that eyebrows are again being raised and it now remains for the Nisa-Today's board, of which I am a member, to explain its future strategy when due diligence has been completed and give shareholders good commercial reasons to support the deal.
Nisa-Today's can no longer simply be the creation of its founders but must match its organisational characteristics to the environment in which it operates.
First there was the influx of wholesalers, then the need to develop central distribution as minimum drop quantities to individual stores started to rise and the large manufacturers took salesmen off the road.
Almost inevitably, large retailers started to take an interest in Nisa-Today's and there were raised eyebrows when the big boys arrived on the scene.
The CBC (Central Buying Company) was formed and enabled members both large and small to benefit from improved buying prices. Over the past two years a number of those large members have been bought out and CBC is no more.
So what happens next? From where I am sitting the next step must be for Nisa-Today's to square up to being able to think and act more like a retailer and the proposed merger with Costcutter into one company provides a platform and backing that will fully flex the best elements of both enterprises.
I sense that eyebrows are again being raised and it now remains for the Nisa-Today's board, of which I am a member, to explain its future strategy when due diligence has been completed and give shareholders good commercial reasons to support the deal.
Nisa-Today's can no longer simply be the creation of its founders but must match its organisational characteristics to the environment in which it operates.
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