Donna Hunter is the Store Manager of our brand-new Food Market store in Botley, Oxford.
Donna talks to us about her long retail career at Midcounties and how the journey to opening the brand new £1.6 million store has been so far. Let’s start with a few questions!
Q1. Tell us about your experience of working at Midcounties
I have been with the Society for nearly 26 years and started my career when I was 15. Working my way up the ladder, I started as Head of Produce Section before moving onto Duty & Grocery Manager at Headington Food.
It’s been a while remembering all of this, but I have been in a number of fantastic stores since I started! My first store manager’s role was at Cowley Road Food store, as a brand-new store launch in 2006.
Q2. In your career so far, what opportunities have you had for development and progression within the business?
There has been quite a few but one personal highlight was in 2009 while working as Store Manager at Walton Street Food store. My District Manager put me forward for the National Specsavers “Women in Retail” award for Manager of the Year. Just to be nominated was a real surprise, as in all honesty, I’d thought to myself “I’m just doing my job” but to my complete shock I ended up winning.
The award came with a few benefits. I learnt to drive, got on the road and in turn become a temporary District Manager. Developing has always been an important part of my career over the years with the society. I’m lucky in that I’ve had a number of fantastic opportunities to learn in courses such as the Manager’s Development Training that includes all the Go Mad management sessions (which I highly recommend!) and the external NVQ level 2 & 3 courses. These development courses have been so important for me over the years, and now that there are multiple opportunities available for us via i.Learn, I always make sure I look what’s on offer for me from time to time.
Q3. What different roles have you undergone and enjoyed the most?
Over my career, I have been able to work in a number of different roles as mentioned above but during 2010, took on a secondment as a temporary District Manager. It was supposed to be for 12 weeks but ended up being 18 months helping me to get out there and meet more people on the road. From here I took on the newly created role of New Stores Operations Manager in 2011 but after three months I fell pregnant! That meant I eventually went on maternity leave. The Society fully supported me during this period where I was able to balance work and family life. Once I was back into work, I helped to launch Oxford Road Food store, in Kidlington within my New Stores Operations Manager role but really wanted to get back into store management, so in 2013 I became store manager of Oxford Road.
Store management is what I know and what I think I do best. Whilst I loved that store, I felt as if I wanted a bigger challenge so applied to manage the larger Botley Food store in February 2015 just after my son was born. I have been there ever since.
Hmm, one role that I’ve enjoyed the most…it’s got to be the temporary District Manager role where I got to work with my fellow managers, share my knowledge and get out and about! Going from operational management to field management during that time enabled me to help other colleagues progress within their own roles and support their development. The role gives great satisfaction and is why I enjoyed it, but I’m really happy in the store where I continue to learn and support others.
Q4. What’s different about working for a co-operative?
My favourite thing about Midcounties and the reason I’ve been here so long is that I’ve grown up with a lot of the people in the business. Out of work, some colleagues I have personally known since I was 12, with many district and store managers being with the society for years. You just know everyone, that’s what makes it different. It’s a family feel, I always know someone to call upon even if I don’t know the exact person who can help and point me in the right direction. Support is big in the society; I feel my line management has always been there for me in every role I have had and that shows.
What also makes Midcounties different is the Values. I go by them all the time and have a really good understanding of them. In the last few months alone, we have shown our Social Responsibility on supporting and turning things around quite quickly with the Home Deliveries and the Click and Collect service. It’s not been the easiest ride, but we have shown to our customers, members and colleagues how amazing we are in supporting the community.
Q5. So, the journey to get to the new store was 2 years in the making, how was that?
So, we closed the old Botley Food store in 2018 and during this time we had to move all our colleagues from a store that was a larger 8,000 sq ft into a much smaller 3,000 sq ft layout. As you can imagine for a lot of our team it was a difficult change, with a closer relationship needed to ensure we worked together in a convenience store arrangement. Having a team of multi-skilled colleagues, our team became closer and everyone gained the same knowledge. To help keep everyone motivated, I worked alongside a number of colleagues rather than directly manage. This brought out the best in our colleagues with teamwork and togetherness, where everyone understood what the expectation was for us.
However, during the last few months, it became very difficult for us due to the social distancing guidelines. Our staff room was too small for the number of colleagues that worked there, and toilets had to be shared with the general public, as you can imagine this was something no one expected to happen! Our support during this crucial period was fantastic both from the daily Colleagues Connect updates and my District Manager Adam Quinton. It ensured everyone knew what was happening alongside the Government updates where the society was quick to react.
We are a family of retailers, my better half is also a store manager, so we work around each other. The fact that our district managers are parents themselves, means they understand why we need to make adjustments in our working lives due to our personal circumstances. The past 14 weeks have been hardest in my career due to no childcare at all other than a few days of school support and no grandparents allowed! The management has been very supportive and if we needed to adjust our working times, then we could as long as we are fulfilling our role requirements. This is so important during these indifferent times, but it is all thanks to our district managers and the senior management team in Food.
Q6. How well do you think the business has responded to the Covid-19 crisis?
To have all the visors, screen guards and colleague protection in-store over the Covid-19 crisis is nothing short of incredible. There were initial frustrations at the start with the likes of other supermarkets installing screens, but staff quickly understood we have different shapes and sizes of stores and checkouts and it would take a little longer.
The refit team assisted our store to create a safer environment for all our colleagues and customer protection. Every single time the government changed the steps, we were on it quickly. I even see it this week with the face coverings, we are kept up-to-date daily.
Q7. So, now the new store has opened to the public what’s your thoughts on it?
The store is outstanding, and I think it has exceeded everyone’s expectations for how different it is, from how we used to look at what the shelves and displays look like now. Today, you walk into a large open space with fantastic displays featuring our Best of our Counties local suppliers. It’s immense, the whole difference in what the team has created. It’s bright, it's airy, you have the energy-saving fridges and LED lighting. Through the local suppliers we now use, we’ve created a whole host of new relationships where we work alongside them, showing us where the produce starts from and ultimately ends up – something we never did before.
To enhance the customer experience, the store has two new instore specialists, Rhys – who is our Chief Cheese Officer (previously a chef in hospitality) and Damien – who is our Craft Ale and Cider Landlord (again from hospitality sector that was affected for him), they provide us with the perfect ‘Food Markets’ style of experts instore.
We’ve also created a number of opportunities in-store for the local Oxford area, welcoming 10 colleagues, including the two new artisans and a few Travel colleagues. A big thank you to the Resourcing team in Support Services who helped us filter through 200 applications for 10 colleague positions during the last few months. At a time of increased trade with panic buying and store responsibilities, they took on board the telephone interviews, helping me juggle my personal circumstances and provide support from colleagues I never knew before.
A personal tribute for me is for one of our long-serving colleagues at the temporary Botley store, Daphne Faulkner, Team Manager, who sadly passed away 1st February 2019. All the staff knew and grew up with Daphne, so I was sad she didn’t have the chance to see how much the store had changed and transformed during the redevelopment. So, just before we moved in, we had a plaque created though Mark Taylor, Head of Store Operations, shortly after Daphne passed away by our friends in Funeralcare. This is now proudly displayed in the new store and shows how tight-knit our team and the society is – supporting wherever possible.
Q8. How has the first week of trading gone?
Absolutely amazing, the first couple of days were wow! Just to put into perspective, in one week of trading in the old site, we used to achieve £75K. However, now in just a few days of opening we’ve already reached that figure - shows the huge difference! The response has been fantastic, customer reactions on the local Facebook groups have turned from negative comments around the development square (in the town) to being completely positive around our store alone. Customers saying, they don’t need to go to Waitrose anymore or to go down the Botley High Street, but instead want to use our organic produce in the Food Markets theme. Receiving Thank you cards and gifts, with our ‘Wows’ customer satisfaction increased, we also provide a new free coffee machine that has helped our uptake of new members signing up and provides a different service.
Store deliveries have increased quickly with so many different lines of products, this is something our colleagues are slowly getting used to. We’ve gone from maybe 20 local lines to around 2000! There is pressure but we are now serving a new group of customers, increasing our sales within the Botley area.
Staffing to support our first few days have been crucial and a big thank you to the Merchandising team and Development Stores Operations Support Manager, Lee Stapleton for all the support they have given to me and our team since we opened.
Some of the most popular products since we launched have been from our local suppliers, Beau’s Bakehouse who sell chocolate brownies and vegan alternatives and Tap Social who are a brewery selling premium ales and lagers. I came across Tap Social a week before opening after seeing they were quite popular in the local area online, so had to get in touch with Nicky Wildin from the Best of our Counties team. She managed to get them into our store ready for launch a week later!
Q9. Finally, what would your top three tips be to those managers that will be part of a new store development or launch?
- Support networks are important - talk to people you know by communicating across the society – colleagues are there to help
- Thanking people often as we all work as one team
- Have hair dye in your bottom drawer as you will go grey!