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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW ROMEO’S ROLLS ON, SPURRED BY PANDEMIC PACTS There have been many business and personal lessons learnt. The importance of self-initiative and taking on challenges with solid leadership was a valuable one. As a team, and individually, Romeo’s faced new hurdles. Romeo Retail Group Director Joseph Romeo spoke to Retail World’s Lorna Gloria. What has been your greatest lesson to date, navigating through this pandemic? I’m particularly proud of how we managed the tasks at hand, knowing that we had testing times ahead. We needed the confidence in ourselves and team around us to deliver outcomes that impacted daily business operations, the community, customers, staff and suppliers. During the peak of the pandemic and resulting panic buying, the leadership skills and knowledge of the Romeo’s staff and management team was second to none, and they played a vital role in delivering a safe and enjoyable place to work and shop. I also want to recognise the IGA national retail board, the Foodland board and all IGA state boards for their solidarity and tireless commitment to the IGA network. Their decision-making and dedication to daily, weekly and monthly meetings ensured the network’s success through Covid-19. Seeing retailers, suppliers and wholesalers (Metcash) working together to achieve the required outcomes was personally satisfying. The strength of these relationships was crucial to our network and resulted in our retailers being adaptable to the challenges that they faced. With all the challenges, what has been your proudest response? One of the biggest challenges we faced was the availability of stock to Romeo’s stores and to the network. There were 20 key categories over grocery, dairy and frozen foods that became limited or unavailable quickly. Following this, fresh lines were also impacted. Fresh produce and meat reached its highest demand in March with minimal stock available due to the drought and bushfires. This extended back to our suppliers and their ability to produce and manufacture stock. Combined with imported goods being restricted or delayed across the world, and transportation and logistics being affected, our industry was struggling and my business and other IGA retailers were severely impacted. It was during this critical time that retailers and Metcash worked together. I’m proud of how we came together. We personally contacted vital suppliers to explain the importance of our network and the current implications it was dealing with, and ensuring the network was receiving its fair share of market stock. What extra measures have you needed to implement to provide a safe and highly productive environment for both your staff and suppliers? To meet consumer demand, our industry and my team worked tirelessly and were recognised as essential workers. While taking the challenge in their stride, they needed to maintain high levels of employee satisfaction and ensure we provided a safe and highly productive environment for customers, staff and suppliers. Taking on board national and state guidelines, our management team worked closely with the ‘Covid-19 Guide’ developed by IGA state boards and Metcash. The Guide assisted and educated our staff to provide a safe environment for working and shopping in. Romeo’s introduced a dedicated cleaning team to support the stores and to reduce any potential spread of Covid-19. Romeo’s promptly installed sneeze guards at each checkout, floor decals to assist with social distancing guidelines, and liquid sanitiser and wipes at store entry and exit points for customers, staff and suppliers to use. Staff took on extra daily cleaning routines, practised and modelled safe food handling procedures and ensured our environment was comfortable and positive. Covid safety marshalls were trained to further support our learning and support customers, staff and suppliers in store. What positives have you experienced from both consumers and suppliers? We’ve experienced increased support from our customers for the locally owned and family operated business. We found customers wanted to shop more locally since the Covid-19 lockdown, and this has increased new foot traffic to the store. They’re also supporting locally produced and Australian made products. Romeo’s has always prided itself on being a supporter of local producers and manufacturers. Suppliers are now seeing the benefits of working with Romeo’s and the IGA network. Romeo’s has shown its ability to adapt to the changing market, with some of the benefits including being first to market with introducing new lines, and being involved with community programs and consumer education. What changes are you seeing in the retail, consumer and supply space? We’re seeing more restaurant suppliers entering the grocery market, introducing ready meals at their restaurants or restaurant branded lines. As expected, more grab-and-go meals and health meal options have been introduced, along with bulk-pack grocery SKUs. Supplier delivery times schedules have changed to meet transport and logistic implications, along with an increase in demand. We’ve also noticed customers wanting quick shopping solutions. What’s next for Romeo’s Retail Group and the outlook for the rest of the year? Romeo’s has had solid double-digit growth over the past 12 months but, as expected, we’ve had some challenges with our CBD sites in Adelaide 18 RETAIL WORLD OCT, 2020