A History Of Success
The story of the grocery industry is as much as anything a story about people. Without the entrepreneurial instincts of the likes of John Cadbury, Henri Nestlé, William Morrison and John and Mary Sainsbury we wouldn’t have the iconic grocery businesses that now provide jobs to thousands of people across the UK and the world.
The scope of these enterprises may have changed significantly over time but one fact hasn’t altered: great people still make great businesses. Finding the right person for the task in hand has always been and will continue to be one of the greatest priorities for grocery firms.
A century and a half ago many grocery businesses were small, often family-owned operations, which in the first instance would look to
recruit from inside the family. Some businesses have resolutely retained a family-run structure. Since June 1847, for instance, five generations of the Booths family have led the grocery retailer which now boasts 28 stores in the north of England.
When businesses outgrew the family, they’d simply recruit new staff through word of mouth or by placing adverts in local newspapers or shop windows. How times have changed. Job listings are so much more accessible in the digital age thanks in no small part to the migration of listings online.
Indeed, some companies are truly stretching the boundaries of how they reach potential candidates. Last November, fmcg giant Procter & Gamble held a Virtual Career Fair in a bid to attract the most talented would-be employees from across Europe. The digital event meant candidates did not even need to leave the comfort of their own homes.
Although the grocery retail landscape was largely fragmented in 1862 – the year The Grocer was first published – some food manufacturers were already becoming important players in the UK jobs market. Crosse & Blackwell was a large local employer at its factory in Central London where it produced pickles, sauces and condiments while across the pond, Procter & Gamble already employed around 80 employees by 1860. Before the turn of the century, the likes of meat supplier Wall’s, household goods maker, Lever & Sons (which in 1885 became Unilever) and mustard supplier, Colman’s, were all providing plentiful jobs at their factories. In fact, the Colman’s mustard company was at the vanguard of many innovations in private sector employment. In 1857 a school was opened for the employees’ children, while in 1864 the firm employed a nurse to help sick members of staff.
The major supermarkets that dominate today’s retail landscape by and large began as one or two man enterprises. Sainsbury’s was founded as a fresh foods retailer in 1869 by husband and wife Johns James and Mary Ann Sainsbury and has been at the cutting edge of retail employment ever since. Early staff at the Sainsbury’s Drury Lane store in London wore a uniform of white aprons to distinguish them from customers. During the First World War, Jack Cohen first opened a market stall in the East End of London in 1919; it now employs around 360,000 people worldwide, of which 260,000 are employed in the UK alone, making Tesco the country’s largest private employer. On the supplier side, Nestlé, Unilever, Procter & Gamble and Kraft Foods, are just a handful of the companies whose global workforce exceeds 100,000, many of whom work in the UK.
MASTER OF ALL TRADES
As an employee in the nineteenth century, broadly speaking your job was either to make, deliver or sell grocery products. In today’s industry there are hundreds, if not thousands, of roles that make working in the grocery sector an interesting and challenging career. Buyer, marketer, merchandiser, demand forecaster, supply chain manager, warehouse operative, sales executive, store manager; the list of roles goes on and on.
In any one of these roles, you will be a vital cog in the business’s operations. As a buyer, you can expect to travel the world in search of the next big food trend. Marketers are charged with coming up with the next award-winning campaign or promotion which will give your brand an edge over competitors. Logistics professionals must ensure that products move along the supply chain in the fastest, and increasingly the greenest, way possible. The growth of online has seen supermarkets seeking to attract the brightest, most talented computer programmers and web developers to ensure their online shopping portals are bigger, better and more accessible than those of their rivals. The green agenda, meanwhile, has seen corporate social responsibility take on a new dimension with businesses looking to pull in sustainability experts from the public, private and non-for-profit sectors, to help drive their CSR agenda.
Finding exactly the right job to suit your skill set has never been easier. Recruitment agencies were not widely established until the mid 20th century but nowadays practically every major grocery company will use an agency to recruit personnel in order to cut down the costly and time consuming process of sifting through hundreds of applications and significantly improve the chances of finding their perfect match. Face-to-face interviews, literacy, numeracy or IT tests and assessment centres further enhance the ability of employers to match the right person to the right job.
Where pay is concerned, the grocery industry no longer suffers in comparison to service-based industries. The highest paid executive in 2010 was not a banker, or a lawyer, but Bart Becht, the chief executive of Reckitt Benckiser, who took home a total package worth £90m.
Further down the career ladder, the rewards on offer remain attractive. At store level, a regional manager can expect to earn up to £110,000 with a bonus potential of 40% of salary. Head office roles offer similarly competitive salaries. A merchandising director can earn around £100,000, with a marketing director, buying director or sales director able to command similarly attractive basic salaries with strong bonus potential.
FUTURE PERFECT
It’s clear that both the financial rewards on offer and the dynamic nature of the industry make working in the fmcg sector an attractive career choice. But what does the future hold for the grocery industry? Well, in terms of employment opportunities, the future looks bright. While other industry sectors have retracted in size as a result of the economic downturn, the non-discretionary nature of grocery products means both manufacturers and retailers have continued to grow throughout the downturn, both in terms of sales and personnel.
Muller, Nestle and Arla Foods are just a few of the suppliers set to create hundreds of new jobs throughout 2012 thanks to investment in their UK operations.
“Our sector has survived the recent economic problems better than any other sector in the UK,” points out Angela Coleshill, the Food and Drink Federation’s director of competitiveness. “By 2017 the sector will need 137,000 new recruits, with 45,000 of these being required for managerial roles and professional jobs.”
The industry already employs 3.54m people, and to guarantee its long-term competitiveness will need to continue to recruit first class individuals, according to Joanne Denney-Finch, chief executive of IGD. “This is a world class industry, and we embrace people of all backgrounds, with varied levels of skills and qualifications – as long as they have the enthusiasm and drive to make the most of the opportunities available.”
Retailers are also continuing to recruit new employees in significant numbers. In December, Morrisons announced plans to create more than 7,000 new jobs in 2012 as it continues its store expansion programme as well as developing its manufacturing and logistics arms. Morrisons will also be continuing its Futures Programme where it looks for 1,000 new leaders of the future.
“At a time when the number of young and long-term unemployed continues to increase we will provide opportunities for many people and help them build a career in retailing,” says Norman Pickavance, Group HR Director at Morrisons. “That means we won’t just be providing a job we’re committed to training our new colleagues so that they have the capability to move from the shop floor to the top floor.”
The number of grocery sector employees who make the transition from the stockroom to the boardroom bears favourable comparison with any industry. The last two chief executives of Tesco – Philip Clarke and Sir Terry Leahy – both began their careers as shelf stackers before progressing to the top job in British grocery. Indeed, the history of the grocery industry is full of stories of inspirational figures that have started from the bottom rung of the ladder and made it all the way to the top. Will you be next to follow in their footsteps?
