Food
“Jacks” of all trade…. Master of the discount one?
This week saw Tesco launch their new branded retail business “Jacks” to compete with the discounters and regain momentum in the retail war. Wednesday saw the unveiling of the brand by CEO Dave Lewis, which has been a close kept secret by employees and suppliers a like. The first 2 stores in Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire opened their doors to the public with plans for further launches, 10-15 stores across the UK in the next year.
The rumour mill had been running for months with people wondering whether Tesco’s own label brands Rosedene, Boswell or Willow farms would appear in the new store formats, but after the launch it was clear that Jack’s was going to kept very separate. 1,800 of the 2,600 SKUs in store are branded Jack’s products with the other 800being well known brands.
The store format is fresh, simple and minimal SKU’s as expected. You could be mistaken for walking into an ALDI that had applied Jack’s branded stickers everywhere. Similar to other discounters they have a “WIGIG” (When its Gone its Gone) aisle, stacked high with various items people buy that they don’t actually need.But the one focus and USP they have over the other discount retailers is, as Dave Lewis has put it, “Britishness”. 8 out of 10 products are British and support UK farming and manufacturing and it’s a British retailer.
Jacks is being targeted, and quite rightly, at the “price sensitive customers” with store locations carefully selected in poorer populated areas. They have made a statement to be the “cheapest in town” and their price points are very competitive, what will be the response on price by ALDI and LIDL? Let’s be honest prices are at rock bottom already in the discount stores there isn’t anywhere to go! Low operating costs and deals agreed with suppliers have allowed Jacks to get straight into the discount heavyweight ring. An agreement is also in place that products aren’t sold to Jacks at a lower value than they are Tesco, its saved in supply costs such as packaging.
Wage’s will also be less that Tesco employees in Jack’s stores, different working conditions and lower prices mean staff won’t have access to the Tesco’s benefits packages.
The concept and idea isn’t new, they aren’t revolutionising the wheel but what they are doing is trying to take back slice of the pie. UK retail has changed and Tesco are on board. If you want my honest opinion, I was a little disappointed going around, there wasn’t anything that made me think, that’s clever or that’s new. It’s just an ALDI or LIDL with new branding. I know that’s just what Tesco want but I was hoping for a little innovative thinking. Do I think it will work? Yes, I do, but I don’t see Aldi or Lidl shaking in their boots.
Jason Kilbride
Recruitment Director at Henderson Brown
Henderson Brown Golf Day 2018
Another fantastic event held at Luffenham Heath Golf Club, supporting our charity of the year The Green Backyard. Well attended with figures from across the Food Manufacturing, Fresh Produce and Horticulture sectors, the weather was glorious and although the golf was challenging, all had a thoroughly enjoyable day. Thank you to all of our attendees for their continued support.
Our winner was Steve Rudge; after plenty of practice in the UAE over the last year he held of competition from last years winner Jason Smith. Both definitely marked for a handicap cut next time around! We look forward to seeing you all again next year.
Overall Winner: Steve Rudge
Runner Up: Jason Smith
3rd Place: Andy Coaten
Nearest The Pin: Steve Maxwell
Longest Drive: Peter Ellis
Winning Team: Steve Rudge and Peter Fry
The Fresh Produce sector is an often overlooked sector by undergraduates with a perception of having to wear wellingtons and working long hours in fields of cabbage! How wrong you are! It is diverse, it is incredibly fast and it can be very rewarding.
As such the fresh produce sector encompasses many different products sourced from around the world according to the time of year. The 21st-century requirement for perpetually full supermarket shelves means that produce is continually being shipped either by road, by sea or by air to meet these demands.
The jobs that are therefore available range from agronomy and growing roles, technical and quality roles, production and operational roles, and commercial and marketing roles – there is a vast number of functions to get involved with and build a career in.
The sector encompasses many different types of business from the smaller grower owned operations to worldwide PLC’s employing thousands of people, this combined with the diverse number of roles available, makes it a very exciting sector to start a career.
I have always advised people when starting their career to remain as mainstream as possible. My simple analogy has been likening a career path to paddling your way up the Amazon… you start off mainstream and then start to specialise, eventually developing an expertise in a backwater – where you will know more than anyone else in the UK or in some instances anyone else on the planet!
The trick, therefore, is to develop a range of skills and expertise that will keep you mainstream and enable you to appeal to a wide number of potential employers as you develop your career. Starting a career in Fresh Produce will teach you life skills of team working, working to very short deadlines and working under pressure. It will teach you how to work in a seasonal business, where you will be operating in different ways and to different timelines throughout the year – it will not be boring!
But finally starting a career in Fresh Produce will provide you with a platform in which to develop a career in the food industry – a sector that will never go away and which is fairly resilient to economic turmoil. Food manufacturing is also the largest manufacturing sector in the UK, approximately twice the size of the automotive and aerospace industries combined with over 100,000 people employed. There will be plenty of opportunities to develop your career.
We at Henderson Brown are a well-established recruitment company working with a wide array of companies throughout the fresh produce and food manufacturing sectors. We know our sector and we know what our clients are looking for so if you would like to have an informal conversation about a career in our sector then please contact us.