Scottish Wholesale Association appoints Bidfood’s Jon Mack president

Jon Mack, business unit director of Bidfood, talks to Cash & Carry Management about his decades in the wholesale trade and his new, additional role as president of the Scottish Wholesale Association.

With over 33 years’ experience at Bidfood, Jon Mack (pictured) is more than qualified to take on the mantle of president of the Scottish Wholesale Association.

In fact, his early career also saw him work in the hospitality industry and for PepsiCo’s ‘Impulse Action’ team, giving him valuable insight into the supply chain from both a customer’s and supplier’s point of view.

On completing an HND in Hotel, Catering & Institutional Management at Queen’s College in Glasgow, he joined De Vere Hotels as a graduate trainee and ended up in the food and beverage side of the business.

Return to Glasgow

After a couple of years he moved to London to work for an independent hotel in a customer-facing role. However, the draw of his home city meant that he soon returned, joining the Grand Central Hotel as rooms division manager.

Seeking a better work-life balance, he took up an opportunity to work for PepsiCo in a role that entailed visiting local stores and pulling stock from cash & carries to improve distribution. After about 18 months he spotted an advert for a sales rep role at Booker Fitch.

“I thought, I’ve got 18 months’ sales experience taught by a blue-chip company, I’ve got several years’ experience in the hospitality sector, so I applied for the job, and that was when my career in wholesale began.”

The Booker Fitch business was sold to Bidvest in 1999 and rebranded as 3663 First for Foodservice and later as Bidfood. When Andrew Selley was appointed CEO, he moved the business model from functional management to general management, and Mack, who was already looking after the sales function in Scotland, added the operational side of the business to his remit.

High-level responsibilities

Now, as business unit director, he is responsible for five sites in Scotland: the fully-stocked Glasgow and Edinburgh depots, the Larbert frozen food hub, and the cross-dock depots in Oban and Inverness. He’s also in charge of the Penrith site and the new Durham premises, which opened this year and replaced the Gateshead branch. If that weren’t enough, he now also manages the Campbell Brothers butchery business in Loanhead, Midlothian.

In his new, additional role as SWA president, what does he think he brings to the table? “I think I’m pretty organised,” says Mack who turned 60 this year. “I believe in good governance and that we should be effective at what we are trying to do.”

He continues: “I bring a lot of sector knowledge but I obviously lack knowledge in the cash & carry side of things. However, I wasn’t a general manager when they made me one in 2015. I wasn’t a business unit director when they made me one in 2021, and I’d never run a manufacturing business, but they gave me one a few months ago!

“I’m a great believer in sitting down with people and listening and learning, and I think I’m an enabler. In my role at Bidfood, I should be taking away barriers and it’s no different at the SWA.”

Jon Mack paid tribute to his predecessor, Tom Slaven (left), retail director of United Wholesale Grocers.

Mack has already had meetings with his predecessor Tom Slaven, retail director of United Wholesale Grocers, and another former president Julie Dunn of Dunns Food & Drinks, as well as SWA chief executive Colin Smith. He will meet the wider team in the coming weeks to learn about their priorities and challenges.

Solid foundations

He paid tribute to his Slaven for his leadership over the past two years: “Tom is handing over the Association with solid foundations and a strong reputation. I aim to build on that.

“I take on the role at a good moment – the Association has real momentum, though the sector itself is facing a lot of change. Our businesses are operating in a tough environment. Costs are high. Margins are under pressure. The regulatory landscape keeps getting more complicated.

“On top of that, technology, sustainability, skills, and changing customer expectations are going to keep reshaping this sector, and the Association needs to be ahead of that, not catching up with it. That means helping members prepare for what’s coming, spotting the opportunities inside the change, and making sure wholesale has a seat at the table when decisions are being shaped.”

Having been involved with the SWA as a member for decades – and for some of that time as one of the organisation’s council members – Mack has a good grasp on how the Association has evolved alongside changes in the wholesale industry.

The council exists to support Mack and the SWA team, and has recently been strengthened with three new members: Jackie Watt, sales director at Thomsons Foodservice; Nikki Castley, commercial manager at Cress Co; and Brian Breslin, general manager of Mark Murphy Dole. This takes membership of the council up to 12 people who collectively represent every facet of the wholesale channel. In addition, the SWA’s employees now include Robyn Cooper, member engagement officer.

Opportunity to develop

“We’ve therefore got some new blood, so it’s an opportunity for the Association to develop with a slightly different group of people,” Mack points out.

He adds: “I would like the council members and the SWA employees to be more visible, better known. The more faces that become recognisable as associated with the SWA, the more accessible we become. A benefit of the membership must surely be for any member to be able to approach different people and seek advice or opinion.”

Mack is not looking to introduce any major changes. “It’s not my job to set the strategy – we have a clear strategy that’s been agreed by the council. It’s my job to point the bus in the right direction.

“We have to be respectful of what the members are telling us and dial up in the right places. A significant chunk of what we have to do is in the legislative arena because our voice has to be heard.”

Jon Mack sees value in events like the Achievers awards.

He also sees the value in events like the Achievers awards in recognising and rewarding Scotland’s top wholesalers and suppliers, and the annual conference in inspiring and sharing best practice. These events also provide valuable networking opportunities.

Time is more precious

“There’s a value to networking, but you’ve got to make it relevant and you’ve got to be conscious of the fact that a lot of businesses are leaner and time is more precious,” he says.

He has always believed that Scotland’s wholesale industry should have its own trade body. “Scotland is different from the rest of the UK,” he maintains. “There’s a million reasons. For example, we’ve got a devolved government; we’ve got a supplier network that’s more connected to the wholesalers because there’s less movement of roles in Scotland; and a lot of what we do is impacted by tourism.”

He concludes: “I’m proud to take on the SWA presidency and I plan to lead in a fairly straightforward way: listen to members, work closely with Colin, the team and council, and back the direction we’ve already agreed while still pushing to go further where it’s needed.”

SWA chief executive Colin Smith commented: “With a leader of the calibre of Jon Mack at the helm for the next two years, I am confident that the Association will continue to go from strength to strength and I look forward to working with him on behalf of our members.”