Brian Calder has been settling into his new role as Chief Executive of Tennent Caledonian Breweries since March. Susan Young caught up with him at the recent Wallaces TCB Roadshow in Glasgow.
Brian Calder could right now be living the high life and swanning about the ski slopes with his wife-to-be. As no doubt many of you know, he and Chris Cosh sold their £90m turnover business Wallaces Express to The C & C Group (Tennent’s) earlier this year, having already sold a 50% stake in it to the brewer in 2013. You would have thought that with a few bob under his belt he might have felt like taking things easier. But no, right now his attention is focussed on creating the best ‘One stop shop’ Scotland has to offer the licensed trade, having taken up the role as Chief Executive of the newly created Wallaces TCB in March.
He explains, “Three years ago I met Stephen Glancey (Group Executive Officer of C&C) at a hotel at Glasgow Airport. It was a meeting set up by John Gilligan. He had sounded me out about selling our business. I think John had a vision for Tennents, and with him coming from Wm Mortons, also a wholesale business, he knew the Wallaces business and he knew the synergies. He obviously took the approach ‘if you are going to buy a car, buy a good one.’ So Stephen and I met, had a coffee, had a chat. And the result was that they bought a 50% stake in our business with an option to buy the second half of the business which they exercised a year later. When Stephen asked me to stay on because John was going to wind down. I thought why not? It was an honour to be asked to become Chief Executive and I knew that if I didn’t take it I may have regretted it. To be honest I didn’t see it coming, but I am certainly giving it my best shot.”
He continues, “It’s different and it’s challenging but I am getting there now. I came from an environment where I knew absolutely everything in my business to one that I didn’t know that much about. It was a reasonably steep learning curve. But I feel that I am there. Every day is a school day.”
“The biggest difference is dealing with the brands side of the business which is hugely important and then there is corporate versus private – there are certain things that must be done in certain ways if you are a corporate business rather than an owner/operator.”
Certainly his meeting with Stephen has been life-changing as was his first meeting with David Cosh, the man that introduced him to the licensed trade when he was still at school.
Explains Brian, “I started in Wallaces straight from school. My mate Ronnie had a Saturday job in Wallaces, he was leaving school at 16 and asked if I would you like his Saturday job? Ronnie said ‘If you go up to this shop Wallaces in Ayr and ask for the boss he will give you my job.’ So I headed up to the shop after school, and saw another classmate of mine standing there. Ronnie had said the same thing to him as he had said to me. David Cosh appeared and said, ‘Yes, boys I can help you, but I don’t have a job for both of you.’ He then got out a coin and asked us to call it. I called heads and got the job. The rest, as they say is history.”
He continues, “I worked there during summer and Christmas holidays for a couple of years and then got accepted into Glasgow University to study Electronic Engineering. At this point David said to me, ‘Don’t go to Uni, come and work for me, and if it doesn’t work out you can always go to Uni next year.’ Of course then I had to go home and tell my parents I wasn’t going to university, and instead I was going to work in a grocers shop. As you can imagine it didn’t go down too well.”
At the same time as Brian and David started working together the business started to grow. Says Brian, “I joined, full time, in September 1975 and would you believe it my first company vehicle was a grocer’s bike with a basket in front.”
As the business grew Wallaces moved into the pub game, and over the next 12 years grew its estate and retail business to three shops and five bars. Brian comments, “David and I did everything from designing pubs, to operating them. Then we thought we could actually do a bit of wholesaling and supply, not only our pubs, but other pubs too. We wanted to create a wholesale business that gave publicans what we thought they wanted. That’s how Wallaces Wholesale started in 1986. We did that for about six years from a warehouse in Healthfield, Ayr then had the opportunity to acquire Express Vintners in Glasgow – that is where the ‘express’ in Wallaces Express comes from. It was essentially our first venture outside of Ayrshire until then we had been a small regional wholesaler and pub owner.”
Wallace’s Express grew by acquiring other companies. In 1998 it bought TB Watsons in Dumfries and then in 2000 Gavin Liddell in Lanark, with its last major acquisition being Woodrows of Dunfermline in 2008.
Says Brian, “We had the impetus to grow and we worked hard at it. I was always the troubleshooter but I had the habit of being in the right place at the right time. We stumbled into pubs, and wholesale, and even getting the opportunity to have a management buyout with Chris (David’s son) in 2003 was my good fortune.”
He continues, “The management buy-out was challenging. It offered a whole new set of challenges and responsibilities and it was now my money and not someone else’s that was on the line. However the timing was great. We had a lot of luck and opportunities came along at the right time but we worked hard and a lot of good people at Wallace’s contributed to its success.”
Brian admits that he loves the cut and thrust of doing a deal. He told me, “I like doing a deal, that’s what drives me. I like to be ‘hands on’ in the business and I like the cut and thrust of trading. Essentially I’m a trader.
I can sit back and see a deal. In fact one of the things I need to take on board in my new role is I really do have to learn to stand back a bit. I can always see both sides of any deal. That comes from the grounding you get when you cut your teeth as a fruit and veg buyer at Glasgow Fruit market.
It’s a numbers thing, you go to the market, and it’s a sunny day. You are thinking how many punnets of strawberries will I buy? What can I buy them for? What can I sell them for? It was very good training.”
It’s not just the business side of the licensed trade that Brian enjoys, it is also the social side, he is very much a people person. He says, “I’ve got to know a lot of people in the business over the years, it’s a people business. I don’t not speak to people because they are a competitior. And I’ve become friends with many of them such as Ian Cumming – I worked with Ian for two years and we’ve been competitors for 20, but we have become friends. John Gilligan and I have known each other for 25 years, both as competitors and as colleagues. That’s what I love about the trade, I really enjoy the buzz about it, the people, the whole concept of it. I’ve certainly met a few characters over the years. From all aspects of the business for instance Dick Smith of CJ Lang is a fantastic guy. I think I taught him to ski in Colorado when he was 62… John Gilligan, David Bishop, Stuart Ross, you learn from watching them. I’ve also met some great customers and operators. You can’t help but be impressed.”
The last six months have seen Brian integrate both businesses. Never an easy task. Says Brian, “I have tried to take the best of both businesses to make a better business, and it should be a winning combination. Wallaces TCB is all about continuing to improve and invest in future of the trade in Scotland. I am a great believer in ‘If you get an opportunity to do something special, you must do it to the best of your ability’ – and to do that, you have to take chances.
We have got a great team at Wallaces TCB that is well known and well respected and has a wealth of experience in the Trade. People buy from people and our combined business is really all about the people. Licensees are much more aware than they were 20 years ago and they are very switched on. They know what they want and they are looking for a supplier that can give them a one stop shop and great service.”
Brian remains very positive about the future of the trade and believes that if people within the trade are positive then that has a knock on effect on their peers and customers. He explains, “The good operators raise the bar and bring everyone along with them. Everyone has to adapt and change as the market changes.
However the old saying “If you keep on doing what you’ve always done you will keep on getting what you have always got” often applies.
I firmly believe that hard work and a bit of luck can get you a long way.”
That’s certainly been the case for Brian… as for that dream of being a ski-instructor it will have to wait a few years!