Following an election, the mantra of any victorious political party is that they want to get on with the business of government. It is a mantra that seems particularly apt for Nisa Today’s chief executive Neil Turton after the symbol group’s members elected a number of new members to its board last month.
As chief executive, Turton’s place on the board of the symbol group was secure, but he admits to feeling relieved that the politics of the past 18 months – particularly the acrimonious collapse of the proposed merger between Nisa and Costcutter – is in the past and that he can now focus on driving its retail strategy forward. “The result means it is an end to politics and we can concentrate on running the business now. There is a good spring in our step as we go into 2008.”
In particular, the election result on November 29 was a rout of the rebels who brought down last year’s proposed merger with Costcutter. The main players in the Nisa Members Association – Mark Proudfoot, Ian Hunt, Anjum Khan and Karnal Sekhon – all failed to get elected to the nine places available on the board.
Not that the political shenanigans of the past 18 months have hit Nisa Today’s retail performance. It delivered sales to retail members – which range from Costcutter to upmarket grocer Booths in the Northwest – of£1.4 billion in its financial year to April. Turton says its retail sales to members are up more than 5 per cent in December so far.
A key goal for Turton in the next 12 months is to continue to attract new retail members. His aim is to add 300 between September this year and September 2008. “In the 1980s and 1990s, Nisa was the natural home for most independents. And we have to work harder at that now – there are a lot of people in the market for supplying independents and we are competing more so,” he says.
Turton says the recruitment drive is going well. “We have several hundred prospects that we are talking to. We need to continue to grow; it is self-evident,” he says. At present, Nisa Today’s has about 1,000 members, which range from small two-store chains to Costcutter’s 1,400 stores.
Another way that Nisa Today’s is fighting back against the big grocers is by investing in price cuts and promotional campaigns. It typically runs 17 large promotional campaigns a year for retail members but, this month, it added another to give it an extra push this Christmas. And it will have invested about£2 million in price cuts in the year to March 2008.
In January, it will also launch a huge marketing campaign, Making a Difference. The aim is to wrest back the higher ground from Tesco and Sainsbury’s in providing for good causes in local communities, such as offering vouchers for schools. “We are aiming to generate a huge sum of money next year to deploy through our members in the local communities like a charitable trust,” explains Turton.
The marketing campaign will be used as a trading incentive by Nisa and will be funded primarily by suppliers. “Its objective is to deliver a significant amount of money – hundreds of thousands of pounds – through Nisa members into good causes in local communities. It will be our pre-eminent retail theme next year. We want to stress what the independently owned store is good at,” he says.
For Nisa Today’s, fighting back against the big grocers will be particularly important next year, given that independents feel they got a raw deal in the Competition Commission’s grocery inquiry’s provisional findings in October.
Turton says he was disappointed with the findings, but stressed that the inquiry is not yet over and Nisa Today’s and the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) will continue to push for more favourable remedies, such as action on the buying-price differential between the biggest grocers and other groups, such as Nisa Today’s, which is widely quoted as being about 12 per cent.
Along with ACS, Turton believes there has been a substantial decline in the number of independents over the past seven years. “If you adopt the capitalist viewpoint of it all being about low prices, you could really end up with a strange country in a few years’ time,” he says.
While any remedies to help Nisa Today’s cause are out of Turton’s control, the symbol group has no intention of being flattened by the Sainsbury’s and Tesco juggernauts. And, with the acrimony and political shenanigans of the past 18 months behind him, Turton will be entirely focused on its operations next year.
At your convenience
Age: 41
Lives: York
Family: married with two kids
Interests: supports Barnsley football club and a “wasted talent” as a photographer
Career history
1991-2007: joined Nisa Today’s as a buyer and after various roles in retail and wholesale became managing director of its central buying company. In 2004, he was given overall responsibility for commercial operations of Nisa. In February 2006, he was promoted to chief operating officer and in October became acting chief executive
1985-91: joined Marks & Spencer on its management trainee programme, before working in some of its largest stores, with a focus on food hall management
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