60 second with…Adam Truelove, Group People & Culture Director - Patisserie Valerie & Bakers + Baristas…4 months later

How was the re-opening of your business? 

This has been quite an interesting and nail biting time for us; from a sales and footfall perspective, London has definitely been hit hardest and all our transport hubs that pre-March 2020 would be buzzing with customers still remain closed and will do for some time we expect.  We have seen more optimistic signs of growth in shopping centres and out of town retail parks, but still lots of work to be done with consumer confidence in these areas. We took a phased/cautious approach in opening groups of stores, kicking off with 10-12 from each brand and building from there.  Our Bakers + Baristas estate is now fully open and trading  reasonably well.  Our PV estate has close to 60% of its stores now open and our new eat in menu, fantastic premium breakfast offer and relaunch of our afternoon teas is proving to be our hero in Patisserie Valerie.  The Eat Out to Help out Scheme has had an encouraging impact for us Monday through Wednesday, so in our opinion a great scheme to support hospitality.  Our teams have been fantastic, we’ve maintained regular communication with our entire workforce since March 2020, and I know they are raring to get back to work, which has meant we can make decisions at pace and get a store open again within a few days, which has been brilliant – I cannot thank our employees enough for their patience and enthusiasm. 

How was it carried out in line with safety procedures put in place to allow social distancing?

My observations not just of our own stores, but that of our peers as well has been exemplary.  We have certainly dialled up our training to support and educate our teams on keeping themselves and our customers safe; but also ensuring our teams understand the important role they play in making sure we live up to our control measures and responsibilities.  We have small teams in our stores (which helps) and everyone one of our managers and team members have been super diligent, and our customers have been empathetic of the changes we have made to our operation.

How is the general feeling and feedback from your team members and your customers now the lockdown is over?

As mentioned earlier – in the main our teams are elated to get the phone call to come back to work. I think lock-down fatigue has certainly kicked in, people want to get moving again (literally with the corona pounds they may have gained during their time being less active at home) and I feel there is a strong sense of wanting normality back asap.  We also have to balance this with a reality check of what was normal in March won’t ever quite be the same again, or certainly not for some time.  I do think that we are all uncertain about how the next 12 months may look, and I think we will all have learnt an awful lot about ourselves and how we can be more dynamic in business.  From a human angle; we have had some time during lockdown with our families (and those lucky enough to be working from home, working with our families or home schooling!)  This has made many of us start to re-evaluate the importance we place on key aspects of our lives; there is defiantly a movement towards appreciating a healthier work-life balance and wanting to work more flexibly and I think employees and businesses alike have proven that this is possible.  From a customer angle; expectation and experience is everything; so in hospitality we need to sharpen our service and standards as the competition is increasing fierce; and its sad to see a large number of well-known peers in the industry go through large restructuring and refinancing programmes, not dissimilar to ourselves, in order to survive. I think given the imminent recession in the UK, people will end up choosing more carefully where to spend what disposable income they have and will expect great value and service for every penny – rightly so.  As operators we need to be ready for this. 

What techniques have you used to build sales and re-engage customers?

I think firstly we have invested heavily in our product offer and going after quality in everything we do:  In Bakers + Baristas we have moved dramatically towards a fresh ingredients, freshly prepared food focus with our menu, whist staying true to offering exceptional value for money.  In Patisserie Valerie is all about sticking to our roots – re-engineering the classics, putting our band back on the map for what we are famous for, whilst innovating in new areas to attract new customers.  We have an afternoon tea range which is second to none and includes a really appealing new children’s afternoon tea and vegan afternoon tea – I’m excited to see how well these will be received by our customers.  Let’s also not forget the huge investment and energy we have put behind Pat Val Premier – our online home delivery service where if you order by 2pm you can have cake delivered to your door the very next day! We’ve certainly not been short of work in lockdown – quite the opposite, we have come out even stronger with this epic new route to market and to support those customers who perhaps don’t have a PV they can visit locally.

What positive lessons do we need to learn from what the industry has been through?

There are a number of lessons for me, but if I had 4 important nuggets to share they would be:

1. You can move quickly and be dynamic when you need to be!  It shouldn’t take a worldwide pandemic for us to be razor sharp and decisive; think about how you can simplify things, check what you are measuring is truly what you need to measure – does it even matter now the landscape has changed? What are the key drivers to success for your business now and in the future? Does the shape of your organisation enable or hinder it from being responsive? Most importantly, do your teams have a ‘start up’ mentality? If they think like a business owner and you can set the culture of ‘being in this together’, you’re onto a winner!
2. Take care of your teams and don’t under estimate the financial and mental burden lockdown and being furloughed may have placed on their shoulders – I am proud to work for a company that values its people and their health and well-being and offer support programmes and benefits that can help our teams during the tough times.
3. Despite the difficult decisions we may have had to make over the last 4 months and looking forward, treating every individual as it if was happening to yourself.  Be respectful, be patient, be humble.  I have a new found respect for my profession in HR, as we’ve all certainly been ‘in it together’ of late and the volume and nature of our work may have shifted to areas where we don’t usually spend our time or don’t enjoy spending our time – so take time for yourself and don’t leave behind the critical role we play in culture, engagement, and maintaining morale – spinning lots of plates, I know.  It might even be time to relook at the company values and behaviours – as you may have found that some of the behaviours demonstrated by the business in a period of crisis are attractive and actually help you move faster from here on.
4. We should continue to collaborate more as an industry – I’ve seen some awesome examples recently of businesses coming together, sharing ideas, supporting peers, business partners and suppliers stepping into help organisations etc.  We need to appreciate and cultivate this momentum.  I know I couldn’t have got through the last few months without the council or advice of my peers in other organisations; we can’t all be experts in everything after all!  I will certainly be doing my part in encouraging more collaborative work and inspire my team to actively seek out what other businesses both in and out of our sector are doing to keep us innovative and sharp in the people space.