News Archive
Summer is here, and I’m off on my Hols!
Robert Todd
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As I write these words, Summer is well and truly here. The rain is hammering against the window, the thunder every and now and then disturbs my concentration (which is flaky at the best of times), the bookmakers won again at Ascot and a Brit failed ever so gallantly to win Wimbledon! We’ve had our heat wave and the rain as arrived in time for the kids breaking up.
Helen has requested, no demanded, some copy on the state of the market
etc. I thought about some long diatribe about how pigs can go up
in price but the cuts seem weaker, or why the wholesale price for
Brazilian is less than the price quoted for containers, but to be
honest I do not have a sensible argument because there isn’t
one and I truly can’t
be bothered. So I am going to stop writing and go off on holiday
with my family and not concern myself with the trade for a couple
of weeks and hope on my return the sun will shine and the world will
seem a less confusing place – unlikely I know on both counts.
Oh why did I go into this trade?
This is a question that I like many other people have asked myself on numerous occasions and it’s hard to come up with an easy answer.
There must be something about it that keeps us here!!
Is it the:
- Unsociable hours, cold and often wet miserable working conditions.
- Short weights on deliveries.
- Chasing late deliveries.
- Out of spec products.
- Delays on customs clearances.
- Food scares.
- Pursuing late payments.
- Vegetarian propaganda.
- Ever increasing levels of legislation from the food police.
I hope that I haven’t missed anything.
No I think it must be something else.
There is something quite unique about the meat trade. It’s a very close knit industry, that seems to get into your blood. Perhaps its a common bond formed from the “misery and moaning ” we seem to surround ourselves in at times.
Unfortunately despite appearances, I’m too young to remember the trade at its height, but old enough to reminisce for the “better times”. Having started working after school and during holidays in a butchers shop at the tender age of 13, and having being subjected to the normal forms of initiation, such being sent to ask for a “long weight” at a neighbouring shop.( I didn’t fall for the “sky hooks” or “chicken lips” though). I have always been in the meat trade. I did my apprenticeship in various shops and then at Smithfield College before heading off into the real world of meat industry.
As an industry we are generally reluctant for change unless it’s forced upon us, metrication being a case in point. Even now we talk about some items in pence per lb and others in pence per kg. Another mine-field for the uninitiated is the name of cuts particularly beef cuts whether its “Ponies of beef”, “Popes Eye”, “Leg of Mutton cut”, “Jacobs ladder” the list is almost endless and often unfathomable. In this industry you are always learning. God help anyone thrown in from the outside world they wouldn’t know what’s hit them. It’s these sort of quirks and vagaries’ that make it what it is.
I urge you to look upon our industry with pride. We have a way of doing things that deserves respect. There is an unwritten code that is followed and those who stray run the risk of being tarred with a black brush. It takes a long time to earn the respect of your peers and could be easily lost. Hold your heads high..
Would I encourage one of my children to enter the trade, probably not, would I do anything else probably not......... What a strange world we inhabit.
Credit
Crunch, eight months pregnant. P11d's and sober....... By Laura
Deller
True to form, my timing is impeccable. After 11 years of continuous service,
looking after the finances, and as we experience the biggest financial
recession in 50 years, I’m
going on maternity leave.
The credit crunch is well and truly here and financial heads and
their accounts
departments across the UK find themselves plunged headlong into
the front line of
chasing customers for late payments whilst holding back the tide
of suppliers “tightening their belts” and wanting payment
on the 28th day! My ‘piece de la resistance’ on top
of all of this is that I seem to be suffering from “Preg Head”.
An apparently natural condition which manifests itself in my staring
off into space whilst preparing the month end figures and pondering
the merits of breast over bottle - a most debilitating complaint!
Seriously though, I know each and every one of us is facing the
same challenges.
We are all treading the fine line between keeping payments rolling
in, whilst continuing to nurture customer relations. If anything
good has come of this experience, then it is that I have spoken
to our customers and suppliers more than usual. By listening to
their individual circumstances and taking the time to convey our
concerns, we have often found some common ground and been able to
compromise and reach a mutually agreeable solution. It seems to
me that when Trade is good, we all rush around - busy, busy, busy
- and that there is never enough time in the day to stop and listen.
My mother always told me that you have two ears and one mouth -
and that therefore you should listen twice as much as you speak.
I think there could be something in that!
Hopefully by the time I return to work in October, the current financial
crisis will have turned a corner. My new addition will be with us
and we will all be looking towards a brighter future, when customers
settle their accounts early and suppliers give 90 days credit -
see I told you I’ve got Preg Head! Oh and by the way, Baby
Todd is so going
to be a dentist - they do not give credit!
Going
to IFE? ..... Lets Meets Up.
Are you visiting IFE 09? We will be there in force. Todd's have exhibited at IFE since 2003, and we have decided this year to take a break and see if our marketing budget can be better utilised.
We will still be attending the show for the duration and would very much like to meet up with all of our customers and suppliers over a drink. We will be contacting you individually over the next few weeks in order to make arrangements.
We haven't decided at which bar Todd's "Stand" for 2009 will be held at, but we will keep you informed - and we look forward to seeing you there.
Right to Left: Ken Todd (Founder of Todd Meats), Dennis Waterman, Bill Carpenter (Vesty Foods).
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Sunshine, great company and Golf . . . as good as it gets!
Gary McAllister & Andy Gray Breast Cancer Charity Golf Tournament Tournament
At Todd’s we feel passionately about contributing to certain good causes, and happily, on this occasion we were able to fulfil this objective whilst enjoying ourselves.
Just recently we were able to submit three teams into the Gary McAllister & Andy Gray Charity Golf Tournament at Celtic Manor. The whole event was sponsored by Westbridge Foods, a company we have long standing trading links with. At the presentation dinner Gary McAllister spoke eloquently on the need to fight this terrible disease, a cause which is close the Todd family’s heart.
We were pleased that trading partners from Vesty Foods, Two Counties, Idel, Ruskims and Six Lines all joined us on this occasion.
Later in the year, we were again delighted to take part in a charity event in aid of The Royal Marsden Hospital.
This successful day was organised by our very good friends at Snapcrest Ltd, and we were more than happy to enter a team with longstanding trading partners, Agro Europe and Strowmar.
Robert Todd
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“Somebody has to pay for Canary Wharf Rob!”
These were the words used by my then bank manager back in 1991 when I complained that I was paying too much for the Company overdraft. Seventeen years later not much has changed. Once again smaller businesses will pay for decisions made by larger ones during boom years. It started me thinking about those times, how we traded, the equipment we used, and how we behaved with regard to credit and trade in general.
In hindsight, that reply did me a great service. From that point on I resolved to repay debt and strengthen the balance sheet, a long slow process that possibly meant we missed some opportunities along the way but now find ourselves more confident about the future than we were back then.
Trading wise, not much as changed. We still run our own cold store and trucks. We still deliver daily within the M25. We still even have some of the same staff - only the location has changed - “Todd’s of Woolwich are now at Tuvey’s in Aveley. I’m not sure Todd’s of Aveley has the same ring to it! The way we trade has changed. I now write orders into a diary or straight onto the computer system. Seventeen years ago I would write then directly onto the desk, a system of traceability that fell down every month because Ken would then clean the desk with Vim! Business was conducted over a telephone with a receiver and lead, we were called to the telephone when in the depot and were even “unavailable” at times because both lines were busy! Telephones were larger and designed for “Slamming” as opposed to today’s which are definitely designed for “throwing” Back in ’91 we hadn’t long taken delivery of a fax machine, a marvelous piece of kit that would spew huge lengths of expensive fax paper with black splodges on them, confirming deals that had been done and that I forgotten to scrawl on the desk! Now we have e-mail with photos and contract notes linked to shipping advices, linked to delivery schedules, linked to invoices. Without all this instant technology thinking time was longer.
Now when I receive an offer over the phone, it is confirmed by e-mail within a minute of putting the handset down and often includes pictures and is followed a few minutes later by a call asking “do I want it or not?”. Back in ’91 you could have left it “firm” for 24 hours. Now we have paper trails, check lists, check lists for check lists, back up discs, and back up discs for back up discs. Back then I couldn’t answer a query because Ken had cleaned the desk, hence our memories and our word would be sufficient.
Not everything has changed. The cheque is still largely in the post and still takes longer to arrive in January than it does in May. Our business is still conducted with a smile and a joke and largely without the need for written confirmation in triplicate. Deliveries from Ireland are still late and customers are still an inconvenience to truck drivers and the love of scratching the sales book still remains constant. In these troubled times it is good to look back and try to remember the lessons of the past, but we as a company are looking forward. In truth systems may have changed but our business is still all about people and relationships - and that thank goodness has remained the same.