SHOP TALK IF I’D KNOWN THEN WHAT I KNOW NOW... VICTORIA NICOL, owner, Two Sisters, Belfast I worked as a project manager for Deloitte in London for 10 years until I had my first child, when I turned my attention to starting an artisan food and craft market in Wimbledon. It became hugely successful – by the end of the first year we had 500 traders on our books. In 2016, I left that behind to move back to Northern Ireland with my two girls (the two sisters) and took a job at a PR firm. One day, my eldest daughter announced that the local taxi office was up for rent and suggested I open a food & crafts market there. We opened in January 2020 and two months later the pandemic struck. We went from zero to 100 overnight and it was a case of taking each day as it came, adapting to customer needs. 18 months in, we expanded into the unit next door, tripling the size of the shop and giving us space for kitchen facilities and some storage. We don’t need much storage as we operate a ‘just in time’ policy, ordering little and often. The downside is that we have to keep a tight handle on stock. We don’t have a sophisticated system for doing this; staff have a list of duties, one of which is keeping track of stock. This was something I brought from Deloitte, along with the importance of having good accounting systems. We deal with over 120 artisan suppliers, some of whom are not very digitally minded, so I take time every week to plug all the invoices into our accountancy software (Xero). This is particularly important at the moment as some suppliers are increasing their prices once or even twice a month. If we don’t keep an eye on this, our margins get squeezed and we quickly start losing money. While the majority of our sales are from food, 35% are from non-food items such as pottery, jewellery and greetings cards, which have the advantage of being non-perishable and providing more generous profit margins. Own-label has been the biggest eye-opener for me. We started by establishing our own coffee label, working with several roasters and packaging the beans ourselves. Now we’re wholesaling to other delis and have launched jams and chutneys. It has turned out to be a great way of getting our brand out there and increasing margins. I’d like to expand our range, alongside growing our outside catering business. When I started Two Sisters I didn’t have an ambition. I just wanted something that would pay the bills and give me a work-life balance. I think you find your ambition when you find something you are passionate about. As for the work-life balance, I’m still searching for that. Interview Lynda Searby Photography Richard Trainor
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August 2022 | Vol.23 Issue 7
