>>Why Londis needs a buyer that has clout - Shamus Lehel, Londis retailer, Wootton
I’ve been a Londis retailer for seven years and in the convenience sector for 13, cutting my teeth as a raw 14-year-old in my sister’s shop. In 1991 my brother and I bought Wootton Post Office when the turnover was roughly £200 a week. We have increased this by 100 fold today - not too bad in comparison to Graham White, chief executive of Londis, who has taken the group turnover from £100m to £500m in 17 years.
We have had to fight for everything: off licence, news, lotto, even car parking spaces when the council wanted to put double yellow lines outside our store.
I have come a long way from those humble beginnings but I’m sure my story is not untypical of many corner shop owners.
In 1996 I converted from cash and carry to Londis because I wanted to be part of a professional symbol group. I looked at different groups, such as Spar, Nisa and Costcutter, but was attracted to Londis primarily because it was a co-operative and also owned its own distribution channels.
Londis has been good for me. Its delivery service to my store three days a week has been excellent. But although Londis leads the field in IT, in other areas, such as fresh and chilled, it has been found wanting.
Increasing layers of management have made Londis distant and inaccessible to its core customers - us. Innovation - the cornerstone of all business - seemed to have dried up in all but name. That is until the shock announcement that we were going to be sold to Musgraves.
When people discover that their own company is to be sold by reading all about it in a national newspaper rather than from the company, you know all is not right.
When The Grocer came out with exact details and a simple breakdown of how the proceeds of the sale were going to be split, it was more useful than the information that was slowly trickling out of Hampton Hill.
Ignorance can be a wonderful thing but also costly. I was blissfully unaware that in the case of a takeover our directors would get 51% of the sale. This option had been legally put into place by us (admittedly only 200 members bothered to vote on it) to give extra incentives to our directors - as if earning hundreds of thousands of pounds a year in salaries is not enough incentive for anyone!
There is no question though that our directors have done a great job under the
leadership of White. The company has gone from strength to strength after being saved from near bankruptcy. Public relations, or rather lack of, with Londis’ shareholders has been the main problem in the recent crisis.
Which direction we take at this critical juncture is the crucial issue. Which company we join, as we surely must, will impact not only Londis’ shopkeepers but the whole of the convenience market.
I feel as do my PALS (Preferred Alliance of Londis Shopkeepers) that the convenience market is fashionable once again. Standing still is not an option and a bigger outfit would certainly benefit us.
Let’s face it, Tesco and Asda do not stand still. You will get exceptions to the rule but the days of the independent corner shop without powerful backing look numbered. Personally speaking I would welcome Sainsbury making a blinding offer for us. We would certainly carry it out of the doldrums and it would have 2,000 extra Sainsbury Local stores overnight, going head-to-head against Tesco Express.
If it gave us the tools, eg cracking low prices combined with owner-managers, Tesco Express wouldn’t stand a chance and it could put Sainsbury back on the map.
Londis is a great company built on solid foundations. The way forward has to be one of mutual consent between all parties concerned.I have criticised our directors in the past but to remove them now would be like getting rid of JFK during the Cuban missile crisis.
I’ve been a Londis retailer for seven years and in the convenience sector for 13, cutting my teeth as a raw 14-year-old in my sister’s shop. In 1991 my brother and I bought Wootton Post Office when the turnover was roughly £200 a week. We have increased this by 100 fold today - not too bad in comparison to Graham White, chief executive of Londis, who has taken the group turnover from £100m to £500m in 17 years.
We have had to fight for everything: off licence, news, lotto, even car parking spaces when the council wanted to put double yellow lines outside our store.
I have come a long way from those humble beginnings but I’m sure my story is not untypical of many corner shop owners.
In 1996 I converted from cash and carry to Londis because I wanted to be part of a professional symbol group. I looked at different groups, such as Spar, Nisa and Costcutter, but was attracted to Londis primarily because it was a co-operative and also owned its own distribution channels.
Londis has been good for me. Its delivery service to my store three days a week has been excellent. But although Londis leads the field in IT, in other areas, such as fresh and chilled, it has been found wanting.
Increasing layers of management have made Londis distant and inaccessible to its core customers - us. Innovation - the cornerstone of all business - seemed to have dried up in all but name. That is until the shock announcement that we were going to be sold to Musgraves.
When people discover that their own company is to be sold by reading all about it in a national newspaper rather than from the company, you know all is not right.
When The Grocer came out with exact details and a simple breakdown of how the proceeds of the sale were going to be split, it was more useful than the information that was slowly trickling out of Hampton Hill.
Ignorance can be a wonderful thing but also costly. I was blissfully unaware that in the case of a takeover our directors would get 51% of the sale. This option had been legally put into place by us (admittedly only 200 members bothered to vote on it) to give extra incentives to our directors - as if earning hundreds of thousands of pounds a year in salaries is not enough incentive for anyone!
There is no question though that our directors have done a great job under the
leadership of White. The company has gone from strength to strength after being saved from near bankruptcy. Public relations, or rather lack of, with Londis’ shareholders has been the main problem in the recent crisis.
Which direction we take at this critical juncture is the crucial issue. Which company we join, as we surely must, will impact not only Londis’ shopkeepers but the whole of the convenience market.
I feel as do my PALS (Preferred Alliance of Londis Shopkeepers) that the convenience market is fashionable once again. Standing still is not an option and a bigger outfit would certainly benefit us.
Let’s face it, Tesco and Asda do not stand still. You will get exceptions to the rule but the days of the independent corner shop without powerful backing look numbered. Personally speaking I would welcome Sainsbury making a blinding offer for us. We would certainly carry it out of the doldrums and it would have 2,000 extra Sainsbury Local stores overnight, going head-to-head against Tesco Express.
If it gave us the tools, eg cracking low prices combined with owner-managers, Tesco Express wouldn’t stand a chance and it could put Sainsbury back on the map.
Londis is a great company built on solid foundations. The way forward has to be one of mutual consent between all parties concerned.I have criticised our directors in the past but to remove them now would be like getting rid of JFK during the Cuban missile crisis.
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