Large Companies vs Small

Reflecting on my week, a very busy one, I have been thinking about the difference in behaviour between large and small companies.  There were certainly companies of all sizes at SIAL last week in Paris.  Amazingly, despite the general strikes and fuel shortages in France this week, I managed to get there and back OK. Partly due to getting a ridiculously early flight on Tuesday morning, which meant that Tuesday was a very long 23 hour day after some socializing in bars at the end! SIAL is one of the best international shows I go to.  It’s massive and attracts both larger companies and also a vast variety of smaller food producers from around the world.

However, what set me thinking when I returned was the difference in attitude between two wholesalers in our sector.  The Fine Food Digest was on my desk at home, and I was surprised to see within it, an 8 page feature on a large wholesaler/broker. The article listed all the Gold Award Winners they are now stocking – but for how long, it doesn’t say.  What amazed me was the article from their MD stating that they weren’t doing this to make money, but were stocking a selection of Gold Award Winners to do these small producers a favour in order to make life easier for independent retailers!  It was the most bizarre (and even arrogant) article I have read in a long time.  Nothing to do at with the fact that this particular large wholesaler has lost a lot business in the independents in recent years and now mainly supplies large groups and supermarkets, and is perhaps regretting losing market share in this sector!  It was nothing but a large PR initiative, and not a very subtle one at that, but to say that they were only doing it to help producers out was ridiculous.  What about the many other smaller wholesalers (like ourselves) that work day-in, day-out with small producers to get their products out into the market-place?  They seem to either ignore or be ignorant of the work done by normal wholesalers who don’t have vast chunks of business in the multiples.

Contrast this with a wholesaler I had the pleasure of visiting this weekend in Cornwall.  They absolutely go the second mile for their customers, give plenty of value-added service, and I would imagine dealing with them is a considerably better experience than with larger companies.  The personal touch is in everything they do.  Some of the producers they are dealing with don’t even have their own outer boxes, so they pick individual jars/bottles for every delivery.  I know which type of company I would prefer to deal with!  And so do you!

Returning to Paris, a quick tale of French customer service.  I arrived at my hotel near the Gare du Nord after the first day of SIAL, I noticed that it was surrounded by the inevitable sex shops so rushed to my room to get changed to go out but noticed my phone needed charging.  With the view to plug in my phone charger I reached out to unplug the TV.  I didn’t get that far though, there was a very loud bang, a flash of light and I was blown back into the room and my left hand had turned black – all the power on that floor of the hotel went off!  I ran downstairs to report the problem to the owner of the hotel, expecting profuse apologies, but got only a) an accusation that I had plugged in something of the wrong voltage and b) a Gallic shrug!

C’est la vie.