ETN | OPINION
In the hot seat
With Kathryn Jaquet, managing director of Milton Keynes based retailer RB Equestrian.
Kathryn Jaquet on the shop floor at R B Equestrian. “Bricks-and-mortar retailers that run highly professional businesses where the customers come first will always be needed,” she says.
WHAT DOES YOUR JOB INVOLVE? A bit of everything. Theoretically, I should be spending my time working on strategy and big projects, but the reality is usually quite different. Like any small business owner, day to day it’s a mixture of doing lots of things. From keeping on top of regulatory requirements to working on the shop floor, it’s all in the mix. I’m a RAMA (registered animal medicines advisor) so I can prescribe and sell wormers. I also hat and body protector fit if we’re busy. I’m not too senior to do anything – including cleaning the loo!
WHAT DID YOU DO CAREER-WISE PREVIOUSLY? My very first job was as a Saturday girl at RB Equestrian. I then went off to university and law school, qualified as a solicitor and worked in the City for a few years. Fundamentally though, that wasn’t for me and I came back to RB Equestrian. I’d negotiated with my parents [Ted and Rosslyn Boggis who founded the business] that I’d try it full-time for a year and if it didn’t work out, I’d get another ‘proper job’. 18 years later I’m still here - so I think it was probably the right decision.
WHAT DO YOU LIKE MOST ABOUT YOUR JOB? It’s a cliché, but it really is the people. We’ve got an amazing team at RB Equestrian and I’ve known some of our customers for 30 years. It’s genuinely interesting to find out what’s happening in their lives and we, as a team, have seen people through some very happy times and some very hard times. I love the interaction with people and developing new relationships. 22 | EQUESTRIAN TRADE NEWS OCTOBER 2022
“If it was easy being a retailer, we’d all be sitting on a beach sipping a cocktail.” AND WHAT DO YOU HATE? Never feeling like I’ve finished… but I’m sure that’s something most business owners feel. There’s always more to do, and more you can do.
HOW CAN SUPPLIERS BEST HELP THEIR RETAIL CUSTOMERS IN THE CURRENT TIGHT FINANCIAL CLIMATE? Hold more stock. More and more products need to be ordered months in advance and it’s a real challenge – especially predicting what you might need in terms of quantities and storage and for cashflow. It was once the case that only seasonal clothing and rugs had to be ordered in advance. But now there are increasing numbers of items that must be forward ordered. I understand this is also difficult for suppliers, and that there have obviously been some very significant global challenges over the last couple of years. But this trend was happening before Covid hit and it does sometimes feel (although not always – there are lots of great suppliers out there) that predicting stock has become much more the responsibility of the retailer rather than the supplier. WWW.EQUESTRIANTRADENEWS.COM
