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Introducing Jerry Marwood

January 24, 2012

Blakemore Trade Partners has started the new year by welcoming new Managing Director Jerry Marwood.

Jerry Marwood took up the position as Blakemore Trade Partners Managing Director at the beginning of January, following the retirement of Dennis Evans.

Prior to joining A.F. Blakemore he served as the Managing Director of SPAR UK for 10 years and is known throughout the industry as one of the leading minds in the convenience retail sector.

The new Managing Director has spent all of his professional life in retail; after leaving school he worked in numerous roles across the Gateway and later Somerfield group before joining SPAR UK as Retail Director in 1996.

In 1999 Jerry began a three-year stint as Managing Director of Newshops, comprised of around 100 convenience stores based in Bristol and the surrounding area, before returning to SPAR UK as Managing Director in 2002.

While Jerry had a happy and successful decade with SPAR UK, he explains that he is ready for a fresh challenge and is looking forwarded to developing Blakemore Trade Partners and the retail stores that it serves.

When asked about the key attraction for joining A.F. Blakemore, the future ambitions of the company were clearly a major factor.

“Obviously I was privileged enough to work with people across A.F. Blakemore and Capper for a number of years prior to joining the company and have a good understanding of how the business operates.

“There is clearly a strong ambition across A.F. Blakemore to grow and become the best business of its kind in the country. This vision for the future provides a really compelling reason for wanting to work in this particular organisation,” he added.

Commenting on the differences between his role as MD for SPAR UK and his role as MD for a regional distribution centre, Jerry said,

“My previous position was essentially a supporting role for hundreds of individual businesses across the country and in that respect the jobs are similar.

“However my new position with Blakemore Trade Partners is much more of a hands-on opportunity and means that I can be more involved with regards to taking action and working with stores directly,” he added.

There is no doubt that the economic climate is a grey cloud across all business activity at the current time, yet Jerry remains confident that SPAR will continue to shine, despite the doom and gloom.

Jerry said: “The economic conditions mean that it is hard out there and there is no room for complacency. However we have a very solid platform for future growth.

“The convenience market is still relatively new and is yet to plateau. Convenience has outperformed the overall food market by two-to-one over the past six-to-seven years and this looks set to continue.

“We have some great stores and we need to work with them to grow sales and attract even more stores to the group. To do this we need to continue our focus upon delivering the right products at the right price and ensure that we stay ahead of the competition.”

From the outset it is clear that Jerry believes that he has the team and support around him to help deliver on these goals:

“The one thing that has really stood out for me is how welcoming and enthusiastic everybody I have met has been. There is a strong desire across the business to improve and grow and it is my goal to help ensure that this business succeeds in reaching its ambition of being the best.”