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Ten years ago Glenn Payne was the beer buyer at Safeway. He has left retail, but is still a passionate beer fan in his role as a drinks writer
In Glenn's words: "In 1998 the accusations of buyers abusing their power were getting shriller and legislation was only just around the corner." However, he notes that 10 years later, "there's still only a code of conduct". He looks back to '98 and his time as a buyer with fondness: "Safeway buyers were empowered and given plenty of latitude, unlike some of our rivals, who were? box tickers." The Safeway 2000 plan was bedding in, and CEO Colin Smith was "revelling in the glory", says Glenn. However, he notes that The Times bitchily said Smith "really ought to spend more time in his stores managing them rather than eating there". He was replaced shortly after the article was published - by Carlos Criado Perez.
In a context of beer brands "staring oblivion in the face", Glenn says he was "buying beer and taking Safeway's innovative range to new heights" - gaining column inches ?to prove it. After leaving Safeway he became sales and marketing director at the "relatively small" Meantime brewery. "All the attributes of a buyer, such as passion and business awareness, were essential, but I had to become an all-rounder," he says. Now running Beer2Love, he says he loves the freedom and travel, but does "miss the daily banter of the office, and corporate hospitality".
On the subject of how he maintains good relationships while commenting objectively on the trade, Glenn says: "I'm more subtle these days - you wouldn't know I was being rude!"
Nigel Trood
Nigel was once a chicken buyer at Sainsbury's, but he was lured away by the promise of the Red Bull brand and is now its marketing director
In 1998 Nigel was responsible for beer and spirits at Sainsbury's. "It was fun dealing with global brands and bringing them to life in-store," he says. He was later head-hunted by Britvic. Although Nigel "wasn't interested at first", he went along to a guidance speech, where another head-hunter convinced him to jump ship to the supplier and "we're still friends to this day".
He says 10 years on both sides of the business has taught him a lot. "You collect experience along the way and over time. The excitement of change is why I found it so appealing to move from buying to selling, which in turn has helped with my current position".
Is he having more fun now than he was in '98? "I definitely enjoy it more now. Working for a brand where nothing is impossible is extremely rewarding. Take the London leg of last year's Air Race World Series, an event nobody thought possible. It drove our biggest month of sales ever," says Nigel.
However, despite having such a prestigious role, he says it has not brought him untold wealth. "I have expensive children instead. At my son's age I had a paper round, whereas he wears designer clothes," he jokes.
Nigel says he's seen the mults change for the better over the past decade. "They are more collaborative with suppliers now. They understand more and want to make a positive impact on the environment."
Paul Ardron
Paul has ticked a lot of boxes in his career over the past 10 years - he's been a store manager, a buyer, and is now head of marketing at Energizer
If you are reading this in a break from a frantic morning on the shop floor or a tough negotiation, take heart. It might seem tough now, but in a few years you'll realise that your time at the coalface was the best learning experience you could have. Just ask Paul Ardron.
Today he's the European director for rechargeables and new technology at Energizer Wilkinson Sword. A little less than 20 years ago, he was a graduate trainee working in Marks & Spencer in Pudsey, Yorkshire. He says as it was a new edge-of-town outlet at around 50,000 sq ft, it was a "hub for trainees". He was 22 and did his non-food training there: "I was pretty hot at wedding lists." Paul says he didn't just fall into retailing? and he was passionate as well as keen on the numbers side. Soon he moved to a small high street M&S in Pudsey to learn the food side and witness the contrasts between stores. This is where he feels he learned how to be a retailer.
?Following completion of his training, Paul became a vitamins buyer at Boots in Nottingham. There was a lot of "buddying up" between head office and shop floor, and he was approached by Roche Consumer Health in the late 1990s. After three years, a job at Premier Foods beckoned, where he infamously "killed" Chivers Marmalade. He joined Energizer as marketing director in 2005, but hasn't lost the hands-on skills and knowledge of retailing that got him where he is today.
Steve Perez
Steve's story is truly one of rags to riches - picking himself up from the floor in 1998 following his firm's collapse, he's now the MD of Global Brands
Steve Perez has had something of an incredible journey over the past 10 years, from being virtually penniless after seeing his company go under, to building drinks firm Global Brands into a business turning over £70m a year.
It was 12 years ago that his first business, the Global Beer Company, folded. He says "the bank was after me, ?so I started a new business".
Steve says he "wasn't really employable: people who build their own business are difficult - it's hard to get them to toe the line". This independent spirit meant that at a time when the ready-to-drink sector was distinctly unfashionable, he grew new firm Global Brands' turnover from £2m in its second year to £16m in the third. He admits he started off by "buying bankrupt stock" - RTD bottles that no-one wanted. But ?soon the firm "decided to make its own". ?
He says alcopops were "an easy target" for government, "because they don't appeal to the governing few". However, he says his current RTD ranges, including the brand new Mojito, offer something different. ?Steve says it was difficult to get a relationship with the major mults until the company had a portfolio of brands to offer. Even now, with brands listed in the major mults, he says it's going to "continue to be difficult" while they "give preference to big brand owners".
From 'rags' to what Steve says is the only RTD brand in double-digit growth, he clearly deserves to have that smile on his face 10 years on.?
Sam Nundy
Only 31, Sam has had a high-powered career, after a farm upbringing. He's now combining being a buyer and getting back to his roots
Sam has had a fascinating career curve over the past 10 years, taking him from farm to head office and back again. He grew up on a farm in Lincolnshire, so the importance of agriculture is ingrained in him. While doing agricultural studies at Wye College in Kent, it seemed a career in retail might be predestined when one his professors, who happened to be a consultant for Sainsbury's, got Sam a work experience placement with the multiple in 1998.
Sam's eyes were opened, working on "special projects" such as hampers and the mult's then brand-new Organics range. This "exciting time" was where he learnt the ropes of merchandising and ranging, and it provided the grist for his fourth-year dissertation.
He says he has "always had a good relationship with suppliers" and he decided to move to Tesco after graduation, rather than working in London. He soon progressed from being a business analyst ?on strategy to becoming a customer manager on petfood?, cereals and hot beverages. Perhaps his biggest role to date, however, was senior buying manager for soups and ambient sauces?. After various roles at head office he felt he had done the rounds and his new role came up at the "perfect time" to enable him to broaden his horizons. ?It allows him to get back to the area he grew up in, visiting local suppliers, and also to get his hands dirty again in the agricultural side of the business that he loves.?
Caroline Dawson
Ten years ago, Caroline was having a whale of a time at college. However, she says she's having an even better time as a Waitrose store manager
Caroline Dawson, who manages a successful Waitrose branch in Droitwich in the west Midlands, was a mere 23-year-old in 1998, but she was already a deputy manager at Waitrose in Sutton Coldfield. This Black Country girl was clearly ambitious and, although she didn't have plans to settle in the region where she grew up, it seems to be turning out that way.
She loves working for Waitrose and, although she admits customers "can be very demanding", she enjoys the challenge. With recent scares, such as pigmeat pricing, questions from customers have become more probing, she says.
Caroline notes that her firm has expanded over the past 10 years to truly national coverage, to parts "we just didn't exist in" back then.
After two and a half years as branch manager in Droitwich, she says she's still enjoying it. She says she is "so proud" of what her store now offers, such as local strawberries and mushrooms, and animal welfare standards nationally. This keeps her passion for the job topped up, fuelling her increased knowledge of her stock?. She says one improvement over the past 10 years in-store is the appearance of the Tapas range - a reflection of how tastes have changed since 1998.
Caroline says that as she's grown older she's actually become more sporty - "I have to!" - and her work-life balance has improved to allow her more time for a life outside work.
Has the number of customer complaints about the price of goods increased recently?
