I came across this old magazine clipping recently – there I am in Working Woman magazine, standing in a Bejam store alongside my colleagues. Along with a cutting from the Gloucester Citizen newspaper (pictured below), it takes me right back to the early eighties when I made what everyone thought was a completely mad threat: “Give me the car, or I’ll cycle 100 miles to Stanmore, Middlesex for this job interview.”
My husband thought I’d lost my mind. My in-laws were convinced I was having some sort of crisis. But I’d spotted something they’d all missed – Bejam Group plc, Britain’s pioneer food retailer, was growing fast, and I was determined to be part of it.
What happened next would see me transform not just my own career, but revolutionise an entire product category worth in the region of £40m. They called me “the meat lady” – and I wore that title with pride.
The 47-Minute Proposal
By the late 1970s, I’d discovered I was ‘unemployable’ – I couldn’t type, the primary skill expected of women then. But I found my calling in sales, trebling turnover at Orchard Farms within 18 months.
That’s when I spotted Bejam. When I visited my local store, I wasn’t impressed. The meat section, their biggest seller, looked like bags of uneven meat lumps with frosted cellophane and flat, boring, uninspiring labels.
I saw an opportunity.
I wrote to Bill Perry, their marketing director, on parchment paper in old English text: I could increase his sales and needed only 47 minutes to discuss it. His reply came almost instantly.
I didn’t ask for a job that didn’t exist. I proposed something unprecedented: give me three and a half months, a company car, and access to 15 stores. I’d return with definitive ideas on transforming their meat operation.
He was a betting man, I recall, and no doubt thought, “What have I got to lose?”
My insistence on that company car nearly killed the deal – but I got it!
The Complete Revolution
What followed was revolutionary. I didn’t just look at shop floor displays – I traced the entire supply chain from production to customer, identifying problems at every stage.
My discoveries were damning: no staff education, poor packaging, inconsistent sizing that didn’t match the growing domestic freezer market, no visual merchandising, and mixed-up storage systems throughout.
The solution was comprehensive:
- Complete Visual Identity: I created new colour-coding for beef, lamb, and pork that followed products from production through retail display, eliminating the previous ‘jumble of mixed meat.’ Each meat type had its specific colour and section – staff couldn’t make mistakes.
- Revolutionary Training: My ‘Meat Advisor’ programme became mandatory for promotion in the food hall. Future supervisors needed hands-on meat section experience before they could advance in their career with Bejam.
- Supply Chain Education: I took staff with a 90% plus pass mark in their project folder on coach trips through the entire supply chain – from butchery units to distribution centres. They could answer any customer question because they knew the complete journey from production to that package in the freezer.
- Market-Smart Packaging: Recognising domestic freezer ownership was exploding (from one-third of households to over half by 1980), I redesigned everything from bulk quantities to family-friendly portions. Instead of 20 pork chops, families wanted packs of six for their new domestic freezers.
The Results
The transformation was dramatic. When I started, even Bejam managers wouldn’t buy the meat despite their 17% staff discount due to inconsistent quality. After my overhaul, meat sales increased dramatically.
I quickly became known as ‘the meat lady’ throughout the company. My official title became ‘Meat Marketing Coordinator’. The management struggled to categorise what I’d created because it didn’t exist anywhere else.
Building Tomorrow’s Leaders
Perhaps my most far-sighted innovation was recognising that transforming products required transforming people. My meat section became Bejam’s unofficial management academy in the food hall.
I was developing managers of the future. They couldn’t become supervisors anywhere unless they’d run the meat section first, it was our highest proportion of business and highest value item.
Some of my trainees went on to distribution and other key areas, carrying forward the standards of excellence and customer focus I’d instilled.
The Fire That Couldn’t Be Extinguished
My success at Bejam exemplifies what I call ‘flashpoint transformation’ – those critical moments when inner fire meets external opportunity to create lasting change.
Sometimes life pushes you, and sometimes you jump and hope it’ll be all right. I was the kind of person who jumped at everything. And if an opportunity didn’t show up, I created one.
My story proves that extraordinary achievements often begin with the simple conviction that ‘anything is possible.’
As I always say: “If you have that fire within you, no one can blow out your flame. Not even a tank could have stopped me from getting that job.”
