There’s nothing like a challenge, let alone an unexpected one. And Ian Smith, 39-year-old new manager of Marlborough’s Waitrose, one of the company’s top 40 stores in the country, is already on the case.
Within days of his arrival came the revelation that Morrisons are opening one of their new range of convenience stores on the opposite side of the High Street, its date yet to be announced.
But Ian is on the case. He has already visited two Morrisons stores to spy on what the competition has to offer and decide on tactics in what promises to be an exacting year, one in which he will hit 40 in September and expect the arrival of a second child.
“It’s going to be a very busy and exciting time,” he told Marlborough News Online. “We shall definitely be rising to the challenge, which gives us an opportunity to look ahead to the future with a totally fresh pair of eyes.
“Morrisons have a wide-scale plan to role out their model of convenience stores across the country. It will be fascinating to see exactly what it is they are offering and what effect it might have on us.
“The competition will obviously keep us on our toes. And I am looking forward to working in a new environment that is very our heartland, a store where we have a really established customer base in the community.”
That’s also because there is another challenge too that Ian, who has taken over from Andy Davies, Waitrose’s admired manager for almost five years, who has taken over a major project based in London.
His dedicated team, some of whom have been with Waitrose since the Marlborough store opened almost 40 years ago, are about to expand the store’s online delivery service that has been operating for the past four years.
“This is Waitrose.com,” he explained. “The other big challenge facing us is growing our online business to reach a wider area and with greater capacity as to what we have on offer to give people more choice.
“Online is the fastest growing part of our business, whether it be in John Lewis goods or Waitrose. We have been delivering now for four years from this branch and we have reached a scale where we have almost maximised the opportunities.
“So we really have to look to ways of moving that forward.”
His experience in retail goes back to his home town of Norwich, where he worked in for Asda aged 16 before taking a degree to become a chartered surveyor, only to discover a lack of opportunities in the recession of 1995.
He moved into retail and worked for Asda before moving south to join Waitrose, working his way up to branch manager in the following years with posts in Thatcham, Henley, Newbury and Abingdon before moving to Headington, in Oxford.
He and his wife, Caroline, a paediatric nurse, were then working within half a mile of each other, she at the John Radcliffe Hospital and he at Waitrose in Headington.
“The Waitrose branch there is very urban and and has a different dynamic,” he pointed out. “Here in Marlborough we have so many partners who have been here for so long.
“And talking to them you get a real sense of the pride they have in the store and the role it plays in the wider community.”
His considerable experience of working in the M4 area is another asset. He and Caroline and their two-year-old daughter Imogen now live in Uffington, which puts Marlborough within easy reach.
“Our second child is on the way in September, due four days before my 40th birthday,” he declared. “They say life begins at 40. So it’s going to be a busy time.”