March 2019
ertonline.co.uk
As Vic Sinclair, Large Electricals Buyer at John Lewis, prepares to retire from the role at the end of the month after 15 years, he reflects on his time working in the CE sector in this exclusive interview with Jack Cheeseman.
Vic Sinclair is retiring at the end of this month. He has spent the last 15 years as the Buyer for the Large Electricals and White Goods department; before that he was the Buyer for Menswear. “It was quite a change because one day I was looking at which shade of blue shirts we should get and the next day everything was white!” Speaking about the big changes between these two roles, Mr Sinclair tells ERT: “In clothing you have two main seasons a year, but quite often in white goods you could be running the same range for 18 months or two years, so from a product point of view things used to happen really quickly in clothing and I found the timings quite different.”
A 21 fter a total of 29 years at John Lewis,
career, online has come along and it’s one area that I really embraced. John Lewis as a business has developed hugely online since I started and large electricals has done really quite well online.
Q: Did you have a background in electricals before this role? Vic Sinclair: No, this was my first dabble in electricals, but there’s a certain amount of analysis in a buying role and whilst working for John Lewis I’ve had the opportunity to visit stores and speak with partners to gain greater insight. As a buying community at John Lewis, we meet every week and discuss what’s going on; a lot of areas are comparable, especially with the smart home and technology morphing into each other. Across all the electrical sectors we know what’s going on. The manufacturers were very helpful towards me – I was in regular contact with many of them and attended training courses when I started. Very quickly I got to grips with what was required for this role.
Q: What’s kept you in your role for so long? VS: It’s really because things change all the time – product changes constantly so you have to keep up. Nothing stands still. During my buying
Q: How has the electricals market changed since you started? VS: In the last 10 years change has been monumental. I would say from a product perspective, people’s expectations are a lot higher now for energy consumption, design and innovation. Again, with the internet, people want things delivered. When I came into the business if you delivered within six or seven days that would be acceptable but in today’s world next day or within two days has become critical. Consumers have become far more demanding in recent years; previous standards aren’t good enough anymore – you have to be exceptionally good, and even that is quickly becoming just average!
Q: John Lewis is a huge, multichannel retailer. How can smaller, independent businesses compete? VS: I think there’s space for everyone. Independents are really important to the community and people trust them – they build up a good rapport with customers and they do what the customers want, so I believe that indies will continue to do well. I always like the adage that if you stop trying to
be better, you’ll no longer be good. You have to continue to strive all the time; what was last year’s good service and good product won’t always be next year’s. Some indie stores that I’ve seen look refreshing and products are well designed and positioned. Everybody can share the market together.
Q: What can indies offer that’s a bit different? VS: High street stores are really important and indies have
good locations, but, like John ››
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