Speaker Q&A: Matt Cundrick, McColl’s Retail Group
Meet Matt Cundrick, head of convenience format & FTG at leading neighbourhood retailer McColl’s, which operates around 1,500 convenience stores across England, Wales and Scotland. A lunch! show regular (he calls it ‘vital’ for sourcing tomorrow’s bestsellers), he’ll be making his speaker debut on opening day sharing top tips for making the most of your POS data and customer insights to drive future growth.
Which food-to-go operators / retailers do you particularly admire and why?
For me, Greggs are operating in an outstanding way at the moment. They have made superb steps to becoming a fully rounded food-to-go operator. With excellent product, fresh credentials and value to boot. Their marketing strategy is outstanding as well!
What do you see as the key food-to-go trends to watch?
Specifically in convenience, the customer is picking up key high street trends around customisation, a focus on fresh, and split day parts. Breakfast is a massive growth area and will continue for some while yet. The one to watch is innovation in hot food-to-go. Lots of great new suppliers breaking into the market with high quality fresh products. Very exciting times!
What’s the most rewarding aspect of your job?
My team. I’m lucky to have built such an amazing team over two years who show such dedication and passion every day. I have some outstanding talent and am very lucky to work with them every day! The results we have delivered through this really speak for them.
And the most challenging?
Trying to get on the curve for convenience food-to-go, let alone getting ahead of it, is tough at times. As a fully owned and operated 1,500 store business, this can have some real challenges.
What does the next 12 months have in store for your business?
It’s a fascinating time to be at McColl’s. We are about to launch an exciting new food-to-go concept and look at how we scale this across the estate to key target locations.
Can you give us some examples of what your business is doing to be even more sustainable?
The development of the new food-to-go concept is working hard to use 100% recyclable packaging. This will be a big step in convenience, and something we can be really proud of.
What’s your bestselling food-to-go product?
We have two key products: Warm, freshly baked sausage rolls are the star of the show, alongside the favourite Rollover Hot Dog.
Why is innovation so vital to the food-to-go sector?
It’s what the customer wants and demands. Social Media drives the visibility of food innovation at lightning speed. New products/concepts are on Instagram and Snapchat within hours, and that forces the rest of us to try and keep pace. Just look at how many shares the Yorkshire pudding wrap got two years ago!
How important is the lunch! show to the food-to-go sector?
lunch! is vital if you take food-to-go seriously in your business. Every year I am here without fail, even if my role is in a slightly different sector. This year’s innovative new product, could be tomorrow’s best seller. Food-to-go moves too quickly to miss this event.
Can you tell us a bit about your much-anticipated session at lunch! 2019?
It’s all about spreadsheets…that should sell it enough, but probably doesn’t! We all have a millions and millions of pieces of data available to us, through EPOS, Insights, demographics, it can be very overwhelming. I believe there are some real top tips we have learnt in McColl’s the last two years to really get to understand the customer, and importantly how to take action on what you find!
Who or what inspires you to be even better?
Internally, I have an amazing team around me. They give me brutal feedback when I need it, and push me to be better, but crucially support me along that path. Externally, I have been really lucky to work with some amazing leaders in foodservice and FTG. Learning from them always inspires and motivates me, and continues to years later.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?
Two things: Do what you’ve always done, and you’ll get what you’ve always got. And, fix things with stitches not plasters.
What advice would you give to someone starting out in the industry?
It’s like building a house. Invest time in a great team, asking questions, and analysing data. Having great people around you will be the foundation of the house. Asking questions of everyone, suppliers, colleagues and senior leaders will help you build the walls and the roof. The data is then the finishing touches. It will answer the questions you have, but also open up more inside.
Tell us a fun fact about yourself that most people don’t know:
I’m one of the only haemophiliacs in the world to have reached Mount Everest’s base camp.
See Matt at lunch! 2019
The Use of Data in Food-to-go to Drive Future Growth: 12.45pm on Thursday 19 September in Keynote Theatre 3
