Positive solutions

02/05/08

From Your Consortium magazine, February 2008:

FOR Andrew Dike the last 12 months have been, in his own words, “an emotional rollercoaster.”

The death of his father William in August last year cast a shadow over what should have been a triumphant 2007 for Dike & Son Ltd, with the opening of a brand new 16,500 sq.ft. Nisa Extra store in the picturesque Dorset village of Stalbridge. “This store was my father’s dream,” says Andrew. “He spent five years on and off battling tirelessly to get the necessary planning permission and working on designs. It is wonderful to have the doors open finally, but it has been hard to do all this without my Dad here to see it. Our team working here with us have found it difficult as well with emotions running high. Many of our staff have been here for years and years.”

Andrew certainly has big shoes to fill. The Dike family has lived in Stalbridge since the early 1800s, initially running a bakery business which over the years has included other depots and branches in Bristol, Portsmouth, Castle Cary and Blandford. At the end of the century Andrew’s great grandfather bought three cottages in the High Street which he demolished and rebuilt as a grocers and a bakehouse on the same plot of land the new store occupies today. In 1914 the family bought a farm, selling milk and meat from pigs and cows reared and slaughtered, as well bread on rounds by horse and cart.

Andrew has fond childhood memories of helping out in the family business. “From a very early age I remember going to help out my great uncle Cyril. He knew all his customers by name, and when my father took over from him and came into the shop side of the business, he was the same. He prided himself on it, he was a real people person. We are trying to keep those little touches- it’s so important and I like to think I can carry on with that. Like my Dad, I try to be hands on and I like to spend as much time as possible on the shop floor, chatting to our regulars as well as meeting new customers.”

The new Stalbridge store has been specifically designed to blend in with its rural location, with a glass front featuring country images of a field in summer with animals, green grass and blue sky. It has also been designed under the Nisa-Today’s co-branded fascia format, enabling Dike & Son to retain its traditional heritage whilst benefitting from the support of a national brand, says Andrew. Inside the emphasis is on fresh food, maximising the consumer trend towards healthy eating, and features include a fresh fish counter, a butchery, a delicatessen, a wide selection of fresh fruit & vegetables and a hot food-to-go section.

The store also has a licensed cafe, selling a variety of hot and cold beverages, light snacks and an increasing meal offering. “The cafe is proving popular,” says Andrew. “We’ve been able to accommodate eight tables and come the summer months we have the facility for outside seating which will double the space. We’re serving locally sourced food, such as fresh fish, meat and eggs, and the feedback has been very positive. One gentleman used to travel 20 miles to Yeovil to get a decent cup of coffee. Now he says he doesn’t have to! We want to provide as much local produce as possible, although we were very restricted on room before. The old shop was only 4,500 sq.ft. so it’s wonderful to have so much extra space.”

Store manager Adam Vincent is also passionate about sourcing local produce. “Several local producers live in the very near vicinity and they like to come in and see their products/produce on the shelves,” he says. “Our meat is born and reared locally, a term that the multiples use so loosely. As an example of our commitment to local produce, we are working on producing food miles labels, giving the farmer’s name and the distance the product has travelled from the farm to the shop. We have a huge focus on local products, such as West Country organic curry, as well as meat, fish and greengrocery. Obviously these cost slightly more and we don’t want to become a farm shop, but it does bring loyalty to the store and Nisa is happy to support us in this. Nisa can provide the day-to-day products that people need, and which brings them in, and we need to offer a point of difference as well as a depth of supermarket produce. I feel passionately about this and so do the staff.”

Andrew is quick to praise the loyalty of his 70 employees, which includes a large number of part-timers, as well as 15 at each of the company’s two other convenience stores, in Dorchester and Crewkerne, in Somerset. “Our staff are our greatest asset. Our grocery manager Kelvin Miles has been here for 38 years, and his wife, sister and son also work for us. We have many staff with 20 or so years of service. My mother Deidre has been our unsung hero. She is responsible for the behind the scenes work, including the accounts, the payroll, and lots of the other administrative duties, and it has been a particularly stressful time for her, but she has been a tower of strength. I know how lucky I am to have such a great team. They have all pulled together, working extra hours to get the shop ready. I couldn’t have asked for a better team of people and I certainly don’t take them for granted. The customers have been great too, often being without suitable car parking facilities while building work was going on, they have remained loyal and most tolerant with diggers and mud everywhere.”

Immediate competition for Dike & Son comes in the shape of a new Co-op four miles away in the town of Sturminster Newton and Andrew acknowledges the importance of Nisa membership to the company’s ongoing success. The company is a longstanding member, joining in 1985. “We rate Nisa very highly as a buying group,” he says. “It is very important for us to be able to compete against the big boys and Nisa enables us to do that. With regards to the shop fit out, the Nisa-Today’s development team have been fully involved in the entire process, working closely with approved shopfitter Secker and Son, who have proved superb, and with Adam and myself offering experience, expertise and fresh ideas. Nisa’s store merchandisers worked tirelessly to get the store ready for opening, laying out the entire store. Some of the comments we have had from customers about the new store have compared us to Waitrose and that is where we set our sights, but obviously more competitive on price, and that is another area where Nisa has been able to help us.”

Looking to the future, immediate plans include the development of the company’s website and online ordering system. “We have to go down this road,” says Andrew. “Whenever my Dad saw a Tesco van delivering in Stalbridge it would make his blood boil. He disliked Tesco with a passion, and was even known to follow a van to see where it was going! We already offer home delivery, mainly for our elderly customers, up to a radius of 8 miles, but in general people are working longer hours and our customers want deliveries at times when it is convenient for them. This is an exciting development for us and I am looking forward to taking it further.”

Adam says he is also currently in talks with a local bus firm to incorporate the store into its regular route. “Nothing here is too much trouble, from taking shopping out to customers’ cars to home deliveries,” he says. “And although we are now four times the size we were, we like to think that we haven’t lost our uniqueness or that personal touch.”

In the meantime, the next generation of Dikes is coming up through the ranks, ready to follow in the family retailing footsteps.

“My 16 month old daughter Georgina seems keen,” says Andrew. “I have always loved retailing, and she is starting to show some signs too. Whenever she comes into the store with my wife Vicky she insists on being out of her buggy, toddling around from aisle to aisle and taking an active interest in what’s on the shelves!”

He is looking forward to 2008, and concentrating on “making the business the best it can be. When we get this store performing well, we would love to get another on board. If a suitable site came up we would be very interested.” Andrew also believes his father would be happy with the way the store is shaping up for the future. “We like to think we are doing him proud.”