17 March 2011 | Rebecca Ellinor
Rebecca Ellinor speaks to Anil Alim, procurement and supply chain director of Westbury Street Holdings, about taking risks, boardroom grillings and supplier relationships
Until just a few weeks ago, hospitality and catering business Westbury Street Holdings, which has a turnover of £300 million, was without a procurement head. That was something Anil Alim sought to remedy once he discovered its company culture. “I was attracted to its values. The employees own the business and all pull together to drive its success, which is what appealed to me.”
After selling his share of Procure4, the supply chain consultancy he helped to found, he targeted two companies – John Lewis and Westbury Street Holdings, for the same reasons: “The culture, the ethos, the belief of each of those companies.”
Alim, now the company’s procurement and supply chain director, persuaded CEO Alastair Storey that the growing organisation needed a supply chain strategy. “It should be a way of controlling almost out of control inflationary pricing pressures such as wheat, dairy and sugar which are hitting us over and over again. That’s certainly something I’ll look at.”
For now, Alim, who will oversee a purchasing budget in excess of £123 million and report to finance director Marc Bradley, has been asked to do nothing but get to know the firm.
“Normally people want to know straight away what you’re going to do and change. This is different. I‘m just going to look, listen and take things in. The CEO doesn’t want me to do any deals yet, just understand the business. It’s like a breath of fresh air.”
Westbury Street Holdings owns the hospitality and catering firm BaxterStorey, the largest within its business. It also owns Caterlink, Holroyd Howe and Benugo, as well as Portico front-of-house management services. Since it caters for everything from city banks to small businesses it needs to have a diverse supply base. And it does – 1,600 of them, including artisans and farmers. Alim will try to meet about 100 of these in the first year.
“In typical hospitality businesses procurement is all about achieving savings and getting rebates, this is about making profit. We offer our chefs complete choice and total creativity but they have to work to a financial constraint with a certain return. One challenge is how do I manage 1,600 suppliers?”
Alim will focus on building long-term relationships with UK food producers and farms to continue to fulfil the company’s vision of fresh food delivered locally in a sustainable way.
And this role is quite different to any he’s had before. He has more than 20 years’ experience in purchasing and supply chain roles – and began his professional life selling spices and teas to Littlewoods until they asked him to do a purchasing secondment.
“It was just right place, right time. They liked my work ethic and people skills and said ‘if suppliers get you, you get the deals you need’. It gave me such a buzz to create that relationship with suppliers.
I would get cost reductions which helped me demonstrate I could buy and I made sure they got the volume. Suppliers liked me because I kept my word. That’s when I realised I’d much rather be buying than selling.”
After Littlewoods he went to Woolworths as senior buyer for sweets, snacks and drinks, then became category merchandise manager for toys and confectionery. “It was huge pressure – finding out in February what would be the hot toy for Christmas. Star Wars was big, and Teletubbies was massive. I had friends ringing to ask if I could get them one.
“When my son was at nursery he told people I had the best job in the world – that I ate chocolate all day and played computer games (my spreadsheets).”
And he, too, considered it fun.
“Woolworths had a brilliant culture, it encouraged you to innovate, so it was all about taking risks. People listed the most bizarre products and only half would work brilliantly.”
This included the singing Billy the Bass, which
received a mammoth boost in sales after The Sun
reported the Queen had bought one.
“My colleague sold 120,000 in a few days, and
was then lumbered with them after a repeat order.”
On confectionery, Alim trialled ‘buy one get one free’ offers, ice cream and crisp promotions. “We did some amazing offers that were all funded by suppliers. It was a safe place to take risks.”
It was also in this job that he faced one of his toughest challenges. One Easter a grocery chain started an aggressive marketing campaign two weeks before the big day, saying it could beat Woolies on the price of eggs.
“Every day the sign was up I was losing sales. The obvious thing to do is drop price, but that would damage our profit. We attacked back. I picked three multipacks I knew were this company’s biggest selling lines. The next day I put signs outside their flagship store and head office saying we were selling them 29p cheaper. Within half an hour the chocolate supplier rang, swearing at me because this other company would know the price we were paying. I said ‘tell them to get their signs down and I’ll take mine down’. And the signs came down.”
Another challenge, this time at Punch, saw him taken to task in the boardroom two months running until he delivered what they believed was undeliverable. “I was severely under pressure to take cost out so our venture capital backers could float the business. They asked what kind of reduction I could get from our biggest suppliers. I put a number forward, they laughed and ripped me to pieces. Two months later I came back and said ‘here you go’.
“It’s all about relationships. I tried to understand what the suppliers wanted – whether it was volume or presence in bars – and told them I’d help if they gave me the discount I needed. Within two months
I had the deal on the table that made the difference. The company originally planned to float within three to five years. They floated in two.”
CV: Anil Alim
May-Dec 2010: European purchasing director, Spicers
Oct 2008-May 2010: Executive director and founder of start-up procurement and supply chain consultancy Supply Chain International
Oct 2003-Oct 2008: Executive director/shareholder of start-up supply chain consultancy Procure4
Jan 2002-Sep 2003: Buying director, then managing director at Punch Supply Company
Sep 1996-Oct 2001: Senior buyer, confectionery, snacks and drinks then category merchandise manager for toys and confectionery, Woolworths
May 1991-Aug 1996: Buyer, Littlewoods Chain Stores
Nov 1986-Apr 1991: Sales and marketing at Carritt Moran & Co, India.
The wrap-up: Three final questions...
What advice do you have on international procurement?
“British companies are notorious for putting a Brit at the top of new business in China, India, or the Middle East. Yes, send someone over to build things up but always have succession planning where you hire local people.”
What would
you change
about buying?
“I would love to move away from restricted contracts to memos of understanding. If we have commercial terms and the relationship works, keep it rolling. If not, we terminate.”
What's the best way to get the CEO’s attention?
“If you bump into the CEO and make small talk you’ve blown it. Have a three-minute conversation ready. Understand the issues in the organisation and have solutions or some good news.”
