After years spent managing Tesco’s South East Asia sourcing hub from Bangkok, Johnathan Sutton says working for Marks & Spencer has allowed him to get back to making a difference.
“I was encouraged to come back to the UK through an opportunity with Marks & Spencer,” he explains. “The role and the ethos of M&S was very much in tune with my values, and I just wanted to get back to actually making a difference, and being a real credit to the growers and suppliers rather than just a function.”
Sutton’s career in grocery retail took off in the 1990s with a position at frozen brand Birds Eye, where he managed 17 per cent of the company’s pea volumes in the Humberside region. After spotting the opportunity for produce branding in retail, he contacted Tesco – at that time the UK’s third largest retailer – and was given the role of technologist for field vegetables.
From there he gained overall management for vegetables as category technical manager, before moving into a Central European role as Tesco developed its global model of joint sourcing, and was eventually posted out to Asia in 2007. From a base in Bangkok, he covered Thailand and Malaysia, and then took a wider role as group sourcing expanded with a new hub in Shanghai, before being tempted back to UK soils.
Sutton is professional when talking about his former employer, now the UK’s largest multiple, but it’s clear he prefers the ethos at M&S: “Everybody in M&S believes in the same values and the same ethos, it’s quite a strange culture, coming from Tesco, it was very much a contrast.”
Although it is sometimes difficult to differentiate between the babble of retailers’ CSR promises, it’s fair to say that M&S’ Plan A stands out from the crowd. Sutton believes one of the reasons the retailer’s ethical values actually work is because it is embedded in the business. He says: “The Plan A attributes are driven by commercial interests. Because it’s got that level of focus it means that it happens.”
The retailer tends to be quiet on fresh produce marketing, but Sutton says it is the biggest food category from a penetration and volume point of view, and reveals some of what’s in store for the future. “With fresh produce, it is a little bit about concept,” he says. “So in layouts you’ll see quite a lot of refitting, and you may see a little bit of theatre in stores, while the tiering is starting to become a little bit more obvious.
“We’re also linking across to some protein to create meal solutions. Because unless they are cooks, customers don’t know what to do with a lot of things, and particularly new products that come in, they want to try them but they don’t know what to do with them.
“Butternut squash is a really good example – customers look at it, they want to eat it, but they don’t know what to do with it. So dicing it, slicing it, putting it in an offer, works really well.”
Sutton explains how linking the supply chain in this way also benefits growers, as M&S will use outgrade produce, sliced as part of a ready meal, to give as much value back as possible. He adds: “The prepared business for us is really strong, it is our heartland. With that in mind, we are managing to link our non-prepared, single items across through our supply base.”
The impression of M&S Sutton gives is of a slow moving, yet nonetheless quietly successful retailer, in a time when many of its competitors are turning to increasingly frantic discount strategies. He is a strong believer in innovation as the key to driving footfall into stores and increasing market share, coincidentally something that M&S does very well.
“Consumers have confidence in us. So with that firm base and that growth it means we have got a springboard from which to try a few more things,” he says. “You won’t see massive changes, but you might see working on things that we know are successful, such as the stir fry shops or the salad shops, and the linking of basic products together.
“We’d like to get another couple of per cent of market share on produce, but realistically we will always be seen to be a niche premium retailer,” he continues. “Which is fine, we accept that, as long as we are getting a fair share of the basket. And what we are seeing is that the innovation actually drives that. We like to be first to market, so we’ll do more and more of that.”
Sutton is complimentary about the fresh produce industry, which he says understands the customer well enough to help drive growth, but he believes one of its downsides is the tendency to be a bit outdated.
“The industry in some areas is quite old, in terms of people. There are some sectors that are exciting, such as marketing and NPD. But in agronomy, and the basic areas, fewer and fewer people are coming through. I think there is an ageing population in certain companies. If the original people are still in there, who is going to take it over?”
With a wealth of experience in UK and global retail positions, Sutton is well placed to discuss the current trend for direct sourcing. Although he won’t comment on M&S’ future strategy, he says: “The UK is quite a small, sophisticated model, and to have people chopping and changing too much doesn’t feel right. I think there are still too many players in the UK market. As retailers develop direct models, there is surplus in the supply chain. That’s going to become quite aggressive, and that for me doesn’t feel like it’s right for the market.”
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