DUBBELMAN, Peter - Metcash (June/July 2013) - Convenience and ...

Face Time
Many
opportunities
lie ahead
A conversation with Peter Dubbelman,
CEO Metcash Food & Grocery – Convenience
The Convenience division of
Metcash Food & Grocery was
formed following the consolidation of
Campbells, C Store Distribution and Lucky 7.
place to have grown up in. Most of my time
at junior school we lived in a gold mining
community which would be comparable to
the smaller communities found in Australia
I met my future wife, Jan, while we were at
high school and it was anything but a rapid
courtship. It however seemed to me that, after
some years, she required a certain level of
And very few in the trade can remember a
Campbells without Peter Dubbelman at the
helm. Mostly serious and single minded, he
greeted C&I with a dry self-effacing sense
of humour that remained never far from the
surface during our long conversation.
Peter Dubbelman is a man who relays his life,
not as a mish-mash of events, but in a series
of timelines. He can outline his career in
less than sixty seconds. Ditto all the changes
that have happened as Davids morphed into
Metcash Food & Grocery. His education took
thirty seconds to relate. Yet strangely, this
interview lasted for twice as long as planned.
Here’s why.
"I was born 52 years ago in Johannesburg
in South Africa. My father was an engineer
who emigrated with my mother from
the Netherlands soon after the end of
World War II. At that time there was
no work at all for him in Europe.
Back then, South Africa was a vastly different
place to what it is today. A society made
up of many tribes, cultures, and races with
legislated segregation yet a fascinating
At school, I didn’t see myself as much
of an academic, although I did enjoy
the commercial subjects. I tended to
concentrate more on soccer in my early days
at school and later, rugby and cricket.
We took some terrible hidings on the rugby
field from the big Afrikaans boys, who always
looked twice our size. But as we got older,
the competition became a lot more even.
I liked the discipline, intense competition
and camaraderie that came with sport.
After High School, I experienced the next
major phase in my life – the Military.
Discipline and teamwork
Conscription was in place in South Africa
back then and in 1980 I spent the next 2 years
in the army, where I learned a lot about
soldiering (and also about drinking). We also
experienced active service in Angola in 1981.
Whilst I can’t say that I enjoyed all my time in
the army, it taught me a lot about discipline and
teamwork. You really get to rely on your mates
and great friendships were formed. In hindsight,
I believe the lessons learnt from this experience
would bode well for any young school leaver
I liked the discipline, intense
competition and camaraderie
that came with sport
entertaining which needed to be funded. So I
took a job with one of the big banks, working
in the foreign exchange department, and
began a part time degree in commerce.
I enjoyed the study, but not the bank,
and at aged twenty I took a job with
Makro, a large Europe-based chain,
where I completed my training.
In 1984, I joined a start-up Wholesale Cash
and Carry venture called Trador as Branch
Manager in a number of outlets which
later become a major competitor to Metro
Cash and Carry (Metcash South Africa)
Young and ambitious
Things were incredibly competitive among
the wholesalers, who watched each other’s
every move. There were a huge number of
small convenience stores located among
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June / July 2013 | C&I | www.c-store.com.au

the indigenous townships, where no white
businesses were allowed to operate.
We’d build Cash & Carry warehouses just
outside the borders. Thousands of small
stores relied on their wholesalers for supply at
competitive pricing and also looked to their
wholesaler manager for assistance in product
selection, pricing and even business training.
For a young ambitious branch manager,
this was an incredible education in
trading and customer service; and some
wonderful relationships developed.
In 1991, we saw the merger of both wholesalers
and Metcash South Africa became a very
successful public company with interests in
over 300 cash and carrys, over 3000 Lucky 7
convenience stores. I was appointed to the position
of General Manager in the Southern Division.
Scary jump
I make no secret that it was a scary job to
jump into initially and part of my job was
to merge two warring wholesale cultures
into a single business, coupled with the
management of socio-political changes that
came with the abolishment of apartheid.
By 1996 we had a young family and had finally
settled in Port Elizabeth (on the East Coast), after
moving a number of times following my career
from branch to branch and area to area. Yet Metcash
was looking for international opportunities.
It saw David Holdings in Australia as a takeover
opportunity and the rest is more or less history.
By early 1998, Metcash South Africa had
acquired Davids and a small team followed
Andrew Reitzer to Sydney. This wasn’t to be
an overseas stint. It was nothing less than
full-on emigration. So we moved again!
Naturalised Aussies
I had been to Australia before, visiting my
older brother in Perth a couple of times in the
pre‐mining boom days, and we liked what we
saw. But we found Sydney to be vastly different
– a much faster pace with a lot more going on.
We loved it. However I learnt very quickly the
benefits of traffic minimisation and realised
the benefits of not living too far from one’s
place of work. We soon got the kids, Jarred
and Jenna, into some good local schools and
easily settled in as a family. We weren’t going
to move again and, fifteen years later, we still
live in the same house, as naturalised Aussies
– but still supporting the Springboks.
The early days at Davids proved to be a real
challenge. It was a broken company, yet had
enormous potential, and I was appointed as
CEO of Campbells Cash & Carry. There were
heaps of challenges and heaps of opportunities.
ADVICE FOR
INDEPENDENT RETAILERS
• You can’t survive or prosper without
leverage. Whether it’s a banner
group, a franchise or a buying
group – being part of a group
can give you that leverage.
• Reinvest in your business – exploit
the value of your location.
• The Majors cannot compete with you
on service – ensure you capitalize on it.
ADVICE FOR SUPPLIERS
• Be mindful of your investment
with the bigger players and
keep the scales balanced.
• Stay in touch with all of your
markets. There is collective
value in smaller markets.
• Continue to innovate with a constant
flow of new products, especially in
the area of pre-prepared foods.
June / July 2013 | C&I | www.c-store.com.au
7

Face Time
We had to build relationships with suppliers
and customers and get a return for our
shareholders. I was fortunate to have a great
team who supported me, we worked hard
and the results eventually came home.
I obviously didn’t have enough stress in my life
rebuilding Campbells at the time, so I embarked
on studying once again and completed my
MBA at the University of Melbourne in 2004.
Restructures and growth
Back at Metcash, what followed were a series of
restructures, particularly in the Cash & Carry
area. Cash and Carry, while still relevant in
high density Capital cities, is a mature business
model and with the demise of small corner
While consolidation is experienced
in the route market, conversely
growth in the organised
convenience sector continues...
stores in the route market, consolidation of
warehouses in regional Australia became a
major strategy. This process is now complete
and the remaining 18 outlets are trading well.
While consolidation is experienced in the route
market, conversely growth in the organised
convenience sector continues. Metcash’s
significant investment in picking and warehouse
technologies has seen the C Store Distribution
business expand nationally and the opportunity
to supply a wide range of merchandise including
Fresh, Automotive and Everyday consumer
goods remains our competitive advantage over
other distributors. And recently a new supply
contract with 7 Eleven was also secured.
Of course there are currently significant
challenges: The two supermarket giants continue
to be a threat. Not only are they actively engaged
in taking a larger slice of the convenience
consumer, they are also de facto wholesalers,
particularly for impulse market products.
There is a good deal of talk about gloom and
doom in the independent small store area.
In fact, in the USA you hardly see corner
stores anymore. But you do see innovation in
small format stores that provide an excellent
offer around fresh food, particularly in
Canada and the UK. The closure of a number
of inefficient corner stores in Australia is
probably inevitable; but it is not something
that can’t be at least partially avoided.
In my view it’s imperative to have the smaller
independent retailers align themselves with a
credible banner. They do that to get better terms
of trade and promotional programs, married to
a supply chain infrastructure that gives them
electronic data interchange (EDI) and access to
a large range. This gives smaller retailers a better
chance to engage with their customers through
competitive pricing and promotional offers.
Also where small retailers invest back
into their businesses, the results are
compelling. Internal evidence indicates
that refurbishment programs can deliver a
30‐40% increase in sales. Organised retailers
refurbish every 5-7 years. Unfortunately
independent corner stores do not.
Opportunities to be realised
Convenience retailing should be more than
an offering of soft drink, chips and chocolate
bars. Although we have seen evidence of
foodservice growth and coffee, we sadly lack
innovation in fresh and convenient foods.
This opportunity has been identified and
will eventually be realised in our market.
The last eighteen months have been a very
busy time at Metcash F&G. At home, the
kids are grown up. Jarred completed his
commerce degree and is doing very well at
Aldi. Jenna has recently graduated and is
actively involved in fashion and modeling.
Outside of work, I do a fair bit of mountain
biking in the bush as well keeping a small
trailer boat for fishing and skiing. I also
love to jump onto my motor bike every
now and again and feel the wind in the
place where my hair used to be.
Despite the challenges, it’s still a great
industry to be involved in with many
opportunities that lie ahead.