CEO Today United Kingdom Awards

123 www.ceotodaymagazine.com CEO Today United Kingdom Awards 2018 TRADE PETE CHEEMA OBE CEO of Scottish Grocers’ Federation ABOUT PETE CHEEMA OBE Pete began his career in finance before moving into convenience retailing in Scotland. He has owned andmanaged a number of award-winning stores a period of more than 25 years. Chief Executive of SGF since 2015, the organisation has gone from strength to strength under his leadership. Pete was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2018 for services to Business, Community Cohesion and Charity. Scottish Grocers’ Federation is the national trade association for independent convenience store industry in Scotland. There are almost 5,300 convenience stores in Scotland. These stores provide 41,000 jobs and contribute some £530 million to Scotland’s economy each year in Gross Value Added. Fundamentally we are here to represent our members’ interests and ensure a profitable and sustainable convenience store industry in Scotland. 2018 has been a landmark year for us – founded in 1918 we are celebrating 100 years of the Federation. Throughout that time we have supported the industry and helped it to evolve and adapt to an ever changing market and ever changing customer expectations. The centenary has been an opportunity to look back on and celebrate the past but also a unique opportunity to plan for the future and ensure we continue to be relevant to our members. SGF has initiated a new strand of its strategic plan, this is called ‘creating effective partnerships’. Essentially it involves reaching out to and creating partnerships with sectors which the Federation had no relationship with before. The rational for this is that convenience stores need a broad range of services: financial, legal, security, IT, utilities and licensing. This approach has been extremely successful in bringing on board companies who can offer these services to SGF members with an assured level of quality and cost. Under Pete’s leadership the organization has also been very successful in commercializing events through attracting sponsorship and by providing partner companies with genuine opportunities to showcase their products and services. He has also given a priority to rebuilding relationships with key companies and leveraging in their support for the change agenda that he has driven through. SGF is essentially a membership organization and now builds membership around a genuine partnership approach underpinned by the realization that it needs to demonstrate value and a return on investment. One of the key aims of SGF over the past 100 years has been to promote responsible community retailing. Convenience stores are at the heart of our communities – in Scotland over 80% of convenience retailers are regularly involved in community engagement activities. This year with the support of a key corporate member, SGF has initiated the ‘community heroes’ award to celebrate and recognize innovative community engagement. The grocery retail industry is with change being a constant feature. One of the key roles for SGF is to provide effective leadership to the industry and to bring it together across the supply chain. The Federation is uniquely well placed to do this: many of the larger retail-group members are also major wholesalers and the Federation also represents most of the major manufacturers, many of whom operate at a UK level. SGF is playing a major part in helping to steer the industry through this time of change. “Chief Executive of SGF since 2015, the organisation has gone from strength to strength under his leadership. Pete was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2018 for services to Business, Community Cohesion and Charity.”