NEWS SPECIAL
C-STORE COLLECTIVE LAUNCH RETAIL CONSULTANCY SERVICES
INTRODUCING…
THE C-STORE COLLECTIVE THREE WELL-KNOWN AND EXPERIENCED RETAIL EXPERTS WITH SUCCESSFUL CONSULTANCY BUSINESSES HAVE DECIDED TO JOIN FORCES TO CREATE A NEW SUPER-CONSULTANCY.
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or anyone that’s been involved in convenience retailing for a while, the chances are they will have come across Jon Rons, John Heagney or Mike Igoe – or more likely, they’ve come across all three. Between them, the three have worked in senior roles across every aspect of the convenience sector and the supply chain with a huge range of household names on their collective CV like Nisa, PayPoint, HIM, Conoco, Musgrave and Jacksons. They have a combined 114 years’ experience and, between them, they had been running three very successful consultancy businesses for many years. “We’ve each had consultancy businesses for a long time but because we’ve known each other for decades and because we happen to live quite close to one another, we’ve stayed in touch regularly,” says Jon Rons. “We speak most weeks, just offering each other advice, helping each other out and basically just providing a bit of support for one another. It dawned on us one day that if we pooled our experience and resources, we could create something that’s bigger than the sum of its parts.” Thus was born the concept of what was to become the C-Store Collective, which was officially launched yesterday. Rons will be known to many for an extensive career that spans more than 30 years so far with senior roles or consultancy positions at Conoco, Musgrave, HIM, MyLocal,
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Zapper and TLM. “I formed my consultancy, Wheatsheaf Advisory, in 2014 and since then have provided services to a wide range of clients, although once or twice I’ve been lured in to take full time positions with some of my clients. But I’ve always retained the consultancy business and in recent years it has continued to grow. Joining forces with John Heagney and Mike Igoe just felt like a very natural thing to do and I believe that together we have something very valuable to offer to retailers, suppliers, wholesalers and brands, both established and challenger.” While 114 years of experience brings most of the tools that the new C-Store Collective will need, the three Founding Partners were also aware that there were some gaps in their skill sets. “We’ve been around long enough to know what we’re good and also to know where we need some additional support,” explains Rons. “That’s why we’ve created an Associate model where we bring in external experts to allow us to provide a truly comprehensive service for our clients. A good example is in licensing, which is obviously a very specialist and technical field. We’ve only last week brought in Chris Mitchener of Licensing Solutions as our Licensing Associate to advise on all licensing-related issues. Chris is on the ACS Independents Board and similarly has huge experience in his field.” The C-Store Collective aims to provide a full complement
