When 15 year-old Vanessa Bagnall applied for a part-time job at a local forecourt she had no idea it would be the beginning of a long and successful career. Yet even after 35 years in the trade her participation on the recent Partnership Plus trial has proved there’s still plenty to learn!
Vanessa Bagnall has come a long way since she accepted a trial for a part-time job at a local Esso Petroleum forecourt. After working there for 10 years, she eventually took over the business and today runs a successful 1000 sq.ft. Mace Express convenience forecourt store in Telford, Shropshire.
“In February 1994, after Esso closed down the franchise site I was managing, I got the job managing Furrows Haybridge Service Station. The business has gone from strength to strength,” says Vanessa.
Furrows is well-positioned, close to local housing as well as an industrial estate and technical college. However it hasn’t all been plain sailing – a 24 hour Tesco Extra is just 2.5 miles up the road, with no less than 4 other forecourts within a 2 mile radius.
When Furrows decided to extend the shop in 2005, Vanessa decided the time was right to join a symbol group: “I spoke to Budgens, Spar, Londis – all of them, but the package Mace offered me was the one I wanted to go with. It suited me – they offered the support without being dictatorial. I like to run my own store and don’t like my hands tied. Plus the look of the shop itself – Mace Vision - was exactly what I wanted.”
It was the right choice – figures showed a staggering 77% increase year-on-year in sales revenue following the shop fit.
On Trial
Most recently, Vanessa was approached by Palmer and Harvey in October 2007 to trial the ‘Partnership Plus’ scheme, before it was rolled out to all symbol members. After her SDE presented the package to her she didn’t waste any time signing up.
“It was so good we would have been fools to say no to coming on board with it. It was adding about £7k to our bottom line – anyone in business would need their head examining to refuse that!”
She is equally enthusiastic about the results.
“Since joining Partnership Plus our profit has gone up by 21%. I was amazed when I saw those figures.”
She adds, “It’s because we get nett price on everything we buy, whether we buy 1 case or 100 cases. We also get better margins on promotions – we were getting 10-12% on promotions but now we’re back up to 20%. That is something that is very close to my heart – I want to do promotions and have four promotional bays. And of course, there is the new order form – I call it my bible, it goes with me everywhere! It is more geared to what we want – we can hone our promotions more to what our customers want. It is fantastic, even if I am not there my staff have it to guide them. They can’t fail with that.”
When asked what she would say to other retailers invited to join, she replies: “Join up ASAP! If I can learn something after 35 years in the trade and increase my profit with Tesco round the corner, anybody else can do it.”
Talking about the future, Vanessa comments: “Business is booming and it’s fantastic. I hope I can carry on tweaking to make the business carry on growing.”
Retailers interested in finding out more about Partnership Plus should contact their local sales developer or Palmer and Harvey branch.