This month we interviewed Mike Higgins, our Senior Account Manager, as 2021 marks his fifteenth year since starting at RMS. As one of our longest-serving employees, Mike completely epitomises the company's core value of loyalty. As Mike looks back over the last 15 years, we see how Retail Merchandising Services has grown from humble origins and find out what he thinks the future holds for the retail industry.
1. Describe your work history prior to RMS, and tell us the story of how you joined the company?
I’ve always worked within grocery retail and have had two employers over the past 37 years. Not long after starting as a trainee manager with Kwiksave back in 1984, I was asked to cover the store of a senior store manager that was renowned for his high standards and unique management style. Fortunately for me I looked after his store for two weeks and he was happy on his return. That was the start of a long personal and professional relationship with Peter O’Toole.
Peter continued to be very influential on me as my career within Kwiksave progressed to the positions of training manager, refit manager, and area manager. After Somerfield took over Kwiksave in 1998 I continued to manage Somerfield stores up until being made redundant in 2006 due to store closures.
Peter, who had also experienced redundancy from Somerfield, asked me to join him in his new venture he had set up, RMS. I was grateful and agreed to help him until I found something more permanent. I’m still here and the rest is history.
2. You have been at RMS since the company first started, just before the first iPhone was launched and when Tony Blair was still the Prime Minister. How has RMS changed over the following years?
Forget the iPhone, one of my biggest challenges back then was figuring out how to work a Blackberry. It took me a while, but I did get the hang of it eventually.
At the start of RMS our only contract was the converting of larger Kwiksave stores to the Somerfield brand. We initially recruited the old refit team and experienced store staff that had left Kwiksave (some of these guys are still with us today) to deliver our service. Our office was a small industrial unit located in Cwmbran that became known as the Tin Shack. I can recall that most of my time in the early days was spent either travelling the country with our guys or with a mobile phone stuck to my ear. As Peter continued to secure new clients through sheer persistence & determination we managed to increase and upskill our field-based teams as well as relocate to a new well-equipped office in Newport.
One of the biggest changes in how we used to operate to how we now manage the business was the introduction of our automated scheduling tools, from a highly labour-intensive paper-based system that used to include the famous wall-mounted dry wipe boards, to our current workforce management tool, flex™.
Over the past 15 years, I’ve seen many changes in both our management and field-based staff. I’ve been fortunate to work with some fantastic people that have contributed to the success of RMS.
3. What are the key responsibilities of your role at RMS?
My key responsibility is to manage the day-to-day interface with our partners, predominantly Tesco. During my time with RMS, I believe that I have built excellent working relationships with many retail project managers, store managers, and head office teams. I’m the person that they will contact with work requests and I resolve any concerns or queries they may have.
4. What is the best thing about your job?
My favourite part of my job is the ability to work independently and the team of people I work with. Our current team of managers, team leaders & field staff are all working to achieve the same goal, to contribute to the success of RMS. There`s no greater pleasure in sharing the many positive comments that we often receive from our stores & partners.
5. What has been your biggest achievement while working at RMS?
The biggest achievement has to be the success of RMS within Tesco. Following on from Peter hounding Tesco for around two years they decided to give us a trial in 2010. Peter, in his words, had done the hard work, then handed the challenge over to me.
After delivering a small new store opening, Tesco set us the challenge of our first full refresh - the biggest refit they had planned in years. I can recall the Senior Project Manager telling me that if we can deliver this project, we will be rewarded with a contract. As the store was located in Cornwall and the requirement was 120 people on the day shift and 80 on nights, this proved to be a huge logistical challenge. We selected the best that RMS had to offer and arranged for 3 coaches to transport the teams from South Wales and beyond. After a tough two weeks, the same Tesco Project Manager was true to his word and awarded the contract.
Over the past 11 years, we have continued to work closely with Tesco resulting in them being one of our primary partners.
6. What has been the biggest challenge the company has faced over the past 15 years?
The biggest challenge, without a doubt, was sadly dealing with the sudden passing in 2015 of our founder and chief Peter O’Toole. Peter had built RMS from scratch and without his leadership, many people felt uncertain about the future of RMS.
Fortunately for us his two sons Daniel and Connah, through energy & vigour stepped up to lead us to the successful business we are today.
L-R: Daniel O'Toole, Connah O'Toole & Mike Higgins
7. What has your experience been of working during the pandemic?
After working from our RMS office for the previous 14 years, working from home seemed very strange at first. Although I missed the daily interaction with the RMS team within the office and in stores the time saved on the daily commute is a real benefit. I feel that while my productivity has increased, I also have more personal time due to not being sat on the M4 for two hours every day.
8. How has the account that you manage changed in the past year?
At the start of the national lockdown, we experienced our busiest time ever within Tesco supplying support colleagues within stores to deal with high demand caused by customer panic buying across the country. This was followed by an extremely quiet period as all project work was postponed resulting in many of us including myself experiencing a period of time on furlough. This gave me plenty of time to redecorate just about every room at home as well as catching up on the gardening jobs.
Thankfully, due to the Tesco project work resuming in September we finished the year strongly by catching up on previously postponed projects.
9. What are your thoughts on the future of the retail industry?
The current landscape is very different from what it was before the coronavirus pandemic. The challenge for retailers will be to reshape their businesses to attract and retain the customers of the future.
I believe that the current retail climate will accelerate the need for larger stores to be respaced due to the majority of sales of non-food categories remaining online. The greatest opportunity for retailers post-pandemic will be in convenience. Although customers may continue to shop online for large non-food purchases people still prefer to see before they buy when grocery shopping. I see a resurgence in the high street convenience stores that can also offer a strong reliable online home delivery service.
10. What is your 1 top tip for improving the retail experience?
Although retail will never be the same again, my top tip for retailers is to use the post-pandemic landscape as a platform for operation re-launch. Even though online spending has dramatically increased over the past year customers will be eager to return to the stores as soon as possible. Retailers may need to reinvent themselves by engaging with customers through digital channels to understand their needs in the new world.
11. How do you see RMS adapting to the new retail landscape?
By using the government furlough scheme to support our key people during the quieter times we have retained our loyal and skilled workforce. This puts RMS in a strong position to support existing and new retail partners as lockdowns ease in the near future and the industry develops to fit into a post-pandemic, digitally-led world.
