Pauline Herbst catches up with Rob Chemaly, recently appointed general manager of retail at Foodstuffs Auckland.

Rob Chemaly first joined Foodstuffs in early 2003 as part of the Strategic Projects team and in 2005 was appointed to the role of general manager Strategy and New Ventures. During this time he was involved in the establishment of Foodstuffs Fresh, the acquisition of Liquorland and the change in the Gilmours business model.

He now brings 15 years of experience in retail and a background in law to his new position.  

FMCG: How did you go from law to the grocery industry?

Our law firm was acting for Johnson & Johnson and I formed pretty good relationships with them so when they heard I was interested in leaving law they gave me an offer I couldn’t refuse. They’re a great company to work for, very progressive and very keen on development.  

FMCG: How did your career take off in New Zealand?

I found a role with what was in those days, Eta Foods and then was GM/marketing director for Allied Foods.

After all those years of study and law, my natural instincts as retailer emerged and I joined Woolworths NZ. I loved it. It was subsequently acquired by Progressive in 2002.

Shortly after we had a mutual parting of the ways which was perfectly beneficial.

As things turned out Foodstuffs was looking for someone to run a project for them around the revision of their fresh produce supply chain. That eventually led to a permanent role with Foodstuffs which morphed into a role. The work I was doing was at the leading edge.  

FMCG: What prompted the change to the Gilmours business model?

Traditionally Gilmours was a centrally managed business. We had a very successful retail business model but wanted that working in a whole segment of the market with a B2B as opposed to a B2C focus.

The BAT business also changed its distribution model and that forced us to transition the business to an owner/operator model. We transitioned a pilot in late 2008 and the early signs were fantastic in terms of customer benefits. It was far more customer focused than a corporate model, very responsive and able to tailor to local requirements quickly and easily.

The Gilmours brand has become another Foodstuffs brand, treated the same as all the other brands. Previously it had its own support structure, IT system and was measured on its own results.  

FMCG: What was the biggest challenge with implementing Foodstuffs Fresh?

We did this by opening an ADC in East Tamaki which eventually became too small but it was very useful from the point of view of obtaining intellectual property and understanding the key drivers in relation to logistics and fresh produce.

A purpose-built facility was developed in East Tamaki. The project ran for about a year and half, maybe two at the most. We partnered with a company called Carter & Spencer in Australia. It was privately owned and had significant IP in the supply chain around fresh produce, so we launched Foodstuffs Fresh as a 50:50 joint venture with them.  

FMCG: What do you think your biggest challenge will be in your new role?

We’ve got a very successful business model and are dominant. The biggest challenge is growing that dominance. Over the years sometimes success does breed success, sometimes it breeds complacency and the challenge is to drive out any sense of complacency and ensure we continue to be aggressive, focused and delivering to our customers in order to retain their custom.

I think the other challenge of course is that there is such a wide range of opinions available to customers today in the marketplace.

It’s a large team of people essentially tasked with driving competition, and driving our market share. The role spans across retail and wholesale operations, brand management for each of the banners, marketing and advertising, and of course responsibility for the teams across grocery, meat, fresh produce and liquor.  

FMCG: In your opinion, what’s in store for the FMCG industry over the next five years?

New Zealand is an incredibly interesting environment. In my view we have world-class supermarkets. The challenge will be to continue to deliver world-class standards, to continue to be relevant, to continue to invest, not only in stores but in systems. Customers and consumers are changing dramatically. We have to reach them in different ways to what we might have done in the past.