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ROADSHOW SA SPONSORED BY DRAKES KEEPS IT REAL Retail World visited Drakes’ new distribution centre earlier in the year and spoke to CEO Roger Drake and Director John-Paul Drake. Drakes officially opened its $125 million ultramodern distribution centre in South Australia in September last year. From what Retail World experienced during its tour of the DC, it’s safe to say Drakes has an extremely strong people culture, considering the way Roger and John-Paul Drake interact with their employees, and the prominent signs around the floor promoting respect, accountability, safety and so forth. On a performance level, the DC also appears to be doing well. “It’s been the right decision,” John-Paul commented on the DC’s opening. “Every day it feels like it. Early signs are very, very promising.” But where to from here? “We just want to make sure \\\\\\\[the DC is\\\\\\\] highly efficient,” Roger said. “And lean,” John-Paul added. Looking more broadly, he says Drakes needs to be transparent, honest, authentic and customer led. The business, he says, also needs to have integrity. “\\\\\\\[Roger\\\\\\\] doesn’t need the business for him to live \\\\\\\[financially\\\\\\\], and because of that position, it means the company can grow,” John-Paul said. “We’ve been offered hundreds of millions of dollars to sell. It’s not about that. “It’s about looking after not only my children, \\\\\\\[but also\\\\\\\] the generation of staff we have. We’ve got 5,500 staff. Not to mention all the families that rely on them. It’s a big ecosystem and it’s a lot of responsibility. “If we don’t control the destination by being vertically integrated, then we can’t be competitive with Coles, Woolies and ALDI, by going through a middleman. We just can’t. “Right now, we’re the most advanced independent wholesaler in the country. We built our distribution centre for the future – as Dad always says, ‘dear today, cheap tomorrow’. We currently have twice the capacity that we need, and we’re seeing opportunities to act as a third-party distributor that we didn’t initially visualise”. Evolving with the times Services such as Uber Eats, Deliveroo and Menulog, 24 CONVENIENCE WORLD MAY/JUN, 2020 Roger says, are “attacking” the retail industry. Drakes, he adds, is addressing this threat with its own grab-and-go offering, and ensuring it doesn’t succumb to “menu fatigue”. “You look at most supermarkets and they have salads and hot chickens,” Roger said. “So, we’ve got to do more than that.” Roger and John-Paul give a few examples: fried rice, butter chicken, carbonara and ravioli. “There’s got to be lots of choices,” Roger said. “And that isn’t going to be easy, but we don’t have a choice.” Drakes is also constantly evolving its plant-based offering, a category John-Paul believes the retailer is “definitely” leading in. “It’s because we’re listening to what the consumer is saying,” he said. “There are more and more people going for plant- based style foods.” The house of brands If Drakes can “surprise and delight” in the customer journey, John-Paul believes the retailer is “winning”. “Whether we do it online, whether we do it when they come into the store, whatever communication contacts they have with us, that’s our chance to show that we’re not just about product and price,” he said. “We want to be about range: having products that you can’t get anywhere else.” Adding to this, Roger said: “We want to be the house of brands,