General News
1 November, 2023
Co-op CEO reflects on successful stint
KEVIN Ford will soon step down as chief executive officer of the Terang and District Co-op after almost seven years at the helm.
KEVIN Ford will soon step down as chief executive officer of the Terang and District Co-op after almost seven years at the helm.
As announced in July this year, Mr Ford will part ways with the company in late November as Gary Tempany takes the reigns.
Mr Ford acknowledged it would be bittersweet to farewell the community which had welcomed him and his family with open arms, and the staff who had been instrumental in the growth of the business, but felt the timing was right.
Mr Ford, along with wife Glenice, arrived in Australia after five years operating a Co-operative in New Zealand.
He originally made the move to Australia to support a friend in Mildura who owned a building company, before taking an opportunity to manage a co-operative in Mount Barker, Western Australia.
“I had just over five years managing the Mount Barker co-operative, which was very similar to Terang in terms of its business units – almost identical,” Mr Ford said.
“At about the four-and-a-half-year mark our youngest son in New Zealand was diagnosed with melanoma on his hip.
“We got a big fright, but fortunately he’s turned out to be a survivor of cancer.
“We made the decision we wanted to be closer to New Zealand as it was a four-hour drive to Perth, then a seven-hour flight; in an emergency, we were a long way away.”
In addition, Mr Ford felt it was time; he had carried out a lot of change in Mount Barker, and felt a fresh perspective would prove beneficial for the store.
It was around this time an opportunity opened up in the small south west Victorian town of Terang, in a similar situation he had experienced at Mount Barker - an opportunity Mr Ford could not pass on.
“Looking at the financials at the Terang and District Co-op from the outside, it looked as if there was an opportunity to improve,” he said.
“Everything looked pretty good when I arrived and it was difficult to figure out where I could add value until I had been here for around three or four months.
“I eventually found I could add value in our store layout; everything was always clean and tidy, but there was room to improve on customer-focussed layout and developing our overall culture.”
The first major step for Mr Ford was convincing the board to take a major leap of faith on a $50,000 investment at the Mitre 10 site in Camperdown.
“It took some persuasion because the board were at the stage of closing Camperdown, it wasn’t profitable, and I said give me $50,000 and I’ll upgrade and re-lay the business and see where it goes,” he said.
“That turned out to be a huge success from day one; I was always confident we were under trading, and now we’re over trading through a small building.
“The staff got confident too, so morale multiplied with business which was getting busier.”
The next step was upgrading the Terang IGA supermarket to make the store more shopper-friendly.
“To put in a fresh department, we had to take away four grocery aisles and it was difficult to convince people we would gain sales rather than lose them,” Mr Ford said.
“We went to the board and said we needed $900,000-odd to do the upgrade, which the board approved at the end of February 2020 just days before COVID-19 hit.”
The ensuing months created an atmosphere of uncertainty but Mr Ford said the Co-op pushed ahead with major rebranding of the Camperdown and Terang from Home Hardware to Mitre 10.
Towards the end of the year, the overhaul of the IGA began which would see aisles removed to increase passage through to the deli area with revamped fresh produce, doubling the size of the meat freezer and adding new refrigeration and extending the walk-in refrigeration in the liquor section.
“Everything we planned for we did on time, in our budget and it delivered not only sales and profit, but confidence in our staff and from our customers,” Mr Ford said.
“That’s probably the biggest kick I’ve got out of it because you know your logics are working and people are excited about shopping here.
“I described the renovations to the board as something you would see in South Melbourne; sometimes people think if you’re in the country you don’t need to do that, but the less you upgrade to what is modern the more you fall behind.
“In retail, you can’t say we’ll leave it because we’re doing okay – if you’re going okay, you’re going backwards.”
Over the course of Mr Ford’s tenure, the Co-op has grown from strength to strength, including back-to back record profit years in 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 and revenue above $28 million annually over the past three years, including more than $31 million in 2021.
Record membership and community sponsorship and donations have stemmed from growth across the co-operative, as the business enjoys sustained success and profitability.
“The first two years were pretty tough and I often felt there were easier ways to make a living.,” Mr Ford said.
“But I’m very competitive, and each time the competitor in me saw what I wanted for the Co-op and I wasn’t going to walk away unless it was better.
“It took a little longer, but the rewards and final product are where I want it.
“Just as with Mount Barker, I think it’s time to walk away and say I had a fair crack at it but it’s time for a new set of eyes to come in and look at it differently, and hopefully take the Co-op to another level.”
Mr Ford said he and Glenice planned on heading back to New Zealand over the holidays before travelling to Japan to visit his son.