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| Mark Scott (on the right in this picture) with Malcolm McCullough at Bill's Farm deli. |
When QVM
Marketing Director Mark Scott ended his employment with QVM the company and
became a Market Trader in the QVM Deli Hall he set up a delicious prospect for
crossing boundaries, taking on new challenges, and proving once and for all
that management bred executives can understand, and thrive in, the unique and
intense small business environment of one of the world’s great markets.
Mark loved
the market before he even considered becoming a trader and when a restructure
meant his job as Marketing Director no longer existed a chain of events
followed with him ending up as owner of one of our key deli businesses, along
with work colleague Malcolm McCullough.
We have
cheekily suggested in the heading to this article that Mark has made a big step
up but that is just trader talk and we will let him make that assessment
somewhere down the track. One of the first things that Mark learned is that the
physical workload is intense. The gap between early morning alarms and washing
your apron out at night is filled with a huge variety of tasks and the pace is
fierce.
The previous owners of Bill’s Farm made it clear that there is always
something to do at every minute of the day. Mark is not complaining. In his
view bloody hard work is bloody great fun. But let’s say that Mark would
seriously question a change to trading hours in the Deli Hall that involved a
longer working day.
This is not
the first time that Mark has thought of transitioning from corporate executive
to hands-on innovator. In his career he has thought on a number of occasions “I
would like to develop that idea”, and this is his chance. He and Malcolm are
not contemplating drastic changes to the business. They have made a slight
change to the business logo, incorporating reference to QVM, but the business
name and the shopfront will remain the same. Essentially they will be building
on the incredibly strong traditions created by the previous owners. Mark says
the phrase that captures their intent is “Bringing farm fresh produce, family
and friends, together”.
In keeping
with modern retail practice they will be strengthening their contact with
customers through social media and Mark’s partner, Hakim, is a digital marketing
specialist, so that will help.
Mark and
Malcolm love the community of traders at QVM and look forward to putting their
stamp on one of our key Deli Hall businesses as the market moves forward into a
challenging new era of retailing.