The Grocer – 20 July 2019

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Ronan Hegarty

Sainsbury’s buying direc-

tor James Bailey is set to

leave the business as the

retailer restructures its

fresh food department.

The Grocer reported

last month that

Sainsbury’s was splitting

its fresh food department

in two, creating a new

business unit for ‘value-

added’ fresh food cov-

ering counters, bakery,

concessions, food to go,

food ordering and cafés,

as well as its traditional

fresh food team.

The new unit will

be headed by Jon Bye,

while director of fresh

food Adrian Cook is set

to leave the business.

The Grocer understands

Sainsbury’s has already

hired a new fresh food

James Bailey leaves

Sainsbury’s as part of

fresh food restructure

head, who is set to join

from a rival retailer.

Sainsbury’s said at the

time Bailey would retain

responsibility for grocery.

However, he has now

decided to depart.

A replacement has not

yet been announced, but

The Grocer understands

this is likely to be an

internal appointment.

Bailey has worked for

Sainsbury’s for nearly

18 years, most recently

spending seven years as

a buying director. During

his time at the retailer

he has been credited

with playing a key role in

Sainsbury’s switch from

multibuy promotions to

more of an everyday low

pricing strategy.

He also led the drive to

work with more startups

and challenger brands,

culminating in the estab-

lishment of the Future

Brands team in 2017.

Bailey also currently

acts in an advisory role

for Old Spike Roastery,

which roasts, packs and

distributes coffee to help

the UK’s homeless com-

munity, and technology

firm Localz, which spe-

cialises in last-mile fulfil-

ment solutions.

Bailey led Sainsbury’s

drive to work with startups

I

t’s always bothered me that sales are

measured in the present and the biggest

win is assumed to be the biggest number

right now. Sales people, and buyers, tend to be

incentivised this way, with short-term targets.

Sustainable sales and relationship building are

harder to measure and tend to get overlooked.

Short-term goals can work – they have to as

this is the way most of the world works, but it can

be like building a house and concentrating on

what it looks like, and not bothering too much

about the foundations or the insulation. It’ll look

good for a while, then it will start to deteriorate

and require constant patching up. I only recently

realised that short-term goals are the driving

force and inspiration for many startups. Their

aim is to sell, usually to private equity, when

the house is up and the cracks haven’t quite

appeared. Timing is everything.

As a startup, 14 years ago, we were hugely

excited by supermarket listings but for the first

few years all our sustainable growth came from

small, independent stores. Our mults listings

were often volatile and unsustainable. Now we

value sustainable and collaborative listings in all

sales channels above all else.

A crack team can build fast and well. Ella’s

Kitchen and Fever-Tree are both businesses

that grew quickly from day one and became

category leaders. Their sales grew very strongly

and sustainably. They built houses on firm

foundations at great speed and I take my hat off

to them both.

We could be accused of obsessing over our

foundations, insulation, wiring and type of

brick, over getting the roof on and landscaping

the garden, but in doing so we’ve had really

strong growth for the past eight years (since

squeaking through the post-2008 recession).

We’ve built an enterprise to last. Now we’re ready

for the finishing touches.

Why now? We have a great portfolio of food

and drink, we know what we stand for, the world

wants healthy food that tastes good, and we have

put together our crack team, which thrives in our

home.

If our Rude Health house were on Grand

Designs we’d have gone way over our original

timeframe, stuck within budget by doing it all

ourselves and be building a home for life.

Camilla Barnard is co-founder and brand director

at Rude Health. Twitter: @rudehealth

stay brilliant

Camilla Barnard

Build slowly if you

need to: it’s not all

about the short term

Pricecheck co-MDs Debbie

Harrison and Mark Lythe

Pricecheck has taken on

21 new recruits this sum-

mer in its biggest gradu-

ate and placement drive.

The wholesaler has

added 11 new employ-

ees under its graduate

scheme and 10 university

students for a year-long

placement this month.

The new members of

staff will sit across the

business with six in

finance, seven in sales,

four in the warehouse

and buying, two in busi-

ness development, and

one in each of the IT,

marketing and customer

operations departments.

Pricecheck takes on 21 recruits

in graduate/placement drive

Those joining via

the graduate scheme

this year include Jack

Harrison, son of co-MD

Debbie Harrison, and

Kate Joel, who was part

of the placement pro-

gramme last year.

“Our team are the

very heart of the busi-

ness and we are continu-

ally investing in the best

people,” said Debbie

Harrison. “We have

ambitious growth tar-

gets, and the skills our

new recruits bring to the

team, partnered with

the experience from our

existing employees, are

invaluable to the busi-

ness. We’re extremely

proud of our relation-

ship with universities

and how we are working

in partnership to deliver

quality paid placements

and eventual graduate

job opportunities.”