Mega Group gearing up to grow under Graydon
By Michael J. Knell -- Furniture Today, October 14, 2001
TORONTO — Mega Group, Canada's second-largest buying group, is assembling a new senior management team under recently appointed President and Chief Executive Officer Michael Graydon to implement its long-planned retail systems.
This team will strengthen the Saskatoon, Saskatchewan-based Mega's existing banner programs while rolling out new retail concepts and unveiling a common point-of-sale system.
At the group's fall conference here, Graydon said Rob Alexander had been named vice president/ merchandising, and Benoit Simard promoted to vice president/retail solutions, a new position. Both are Mega veterans.
Alexander succeeds Gord Murray, who retired last year. Alexander was in charge of the group's appliance program and pioneered its Appliance Connection banner. He now will be responsible for all merchandising.
Simard has been vice president of Quebec operations and national director of Concept Décor. He joined the organization when VIP Stores merged with Les magasins des ameublements BV in early 2000.
In his new post, Simard will be responsible for the group's existing furniture banners — Countrywide and Multi Meubles — and for the development of others, particularly Sleep Experience, a stand-alone sleep shop on the planning board for some time.
"The key for us is the development of structured retail groups and systems," Graydon said. "We have to maximize the potential of the banners."
He said Mega will recruit other seasoned merchants for new management positions, including banner managers and a director of training. Graydon took over as president and CEO of the co-operatively owned buying group in July, succeeding Otto Papasadero, who retired after nine years in the post.
He said that since Papasadero announced his retirement last January, the group hasn't been pursuing aggressively the plans laid during his tenure.
"Otto built the organization but there has been a natural slowdown since he decided to retire," Graydon said. "But now there is an urgency to get things going. My first task is to get the infrastructure right and put a management team in place."
Graydon is a veteran of Canada's grocery industry, where independent retailers tend to be grouped into highly disciplined franchises. He believes that if Mega is to drive costs down while boosting both top and bottom lines, members must be "more corporate" in their practices.
The first move in this direction is a common point-of-sale system. "We want to take the intuition out of merchandising and put more science into it," Graydon said, adding the new system will provide more timely and accurate sales data. A common training program will be created soon, he said.
Countrywide and Multi Meubles will remain the nucleus of Mega's business. "We are going to strengthen the merchandising program and we're going to standardize; we're going to act as a banner," Graydon said.
There are about 60 Countrywide stores across the country, except for Quebec, where Multi Meubles operates. "I don't see why this number can't double in the next three or four years," Graydon said.
He described the potential of Sleep Experience as "huge, so the person we bring in to head that effort is going to be recruiting."
Graydon acknowledged imports are playing an ever-increasing role in furniture merchandising. "I'm a strong supporter of Canadian manufacturers, but there are a lot of products that aren't being made here anymore," he said. "We can't ignore the quality of product that's now being made offshore, and we have to bring those advantages to our members."
Mega is looking at establishing regional warehouses to import product and distribute it to member stores. "That's been critical to success in the grocery business," he said.
Graydon said Appliance Connection will be aggressively marketed to independent retailers in the coming months. "The model store (in North Vancouver) has worked very well and we have signed up an additional five or six members," he said.
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