One of the longest-serving figures in the Scottish retail and wholesale trade, Ian McDonald, is set to retire from Glasgow-based JW Filshill after a career spanning over 40 years.
McDonald, who has been instrumental in growing the KeyStore brand in Scotland and the north of England, will remain with the business working on a number of projects before stepping down in January 2018.
Craig Brown, until recently co-owner of the west of Scotland-based retail, food and drink consultancy Ross & Brown, has joined Filshill in the newly-created role of retail sales director and will hold responsibility for all sales activities within the business.
“Ian has made an invaluable contribution to Filshill over the last 41 years and there can be few delivered wholesalers across the UK, let alone Scotland, fortunate enough to have an individual of Ian’s calibre driving and developing their retail business,” said Simon Hannah, managing director of Filshill.
“He will leave behind a legacy of innovation, professionalism and passion having worked with his team to drive up standards in the convenience store sector and help countless independent family businesses become more successful in an everevolving and challenging retail marketplace.”
McDonald’s highlights at Filshill include winning the Morning Noon & Night business of 50 stores – delivering turnover of £30 million – in 2004. He has forged strong relationships with key customers such as Scotmid, G101, Vino, Park’s of Hamilton, Margiotta’s of Edinburgh and many independent retailers across the country.
In 2013, he achieved an industry first in recruiting the Clydebank Co-op to KeyStore in a collaboration which has seen the co-operative grow its grocery business and adopt a new localised product offering.
Hannah continued: “Ian’s foresight and understanding of the growing data-led culture within the retail sector has been instrumental in our decision to focus significantly on supporting our customers with Epos systems. He was also responsible for bringing Shopflow – third party supply – to Filshill and this currently has a turnover in excess of £6 million.”
In recent years, Filshill has secured a number of national contracts with customers including CalMac and the Scottish Prison Service. The company historically supported Key Lekkerland with its national supply to Nestlé Express Vending, Blockbuster and numerous cinema contracts across the UK. “All of this business is down to Ian McDonald and his sales team,” said Hannah.
Currently supplying over 175 independent KeyStore outlets across Scotland and the north of England, Filshill is a member of the Today’s Group. All KeyStore retailers qualify for membership of the Scottish Grocers’ Federation or Association of Convenience Stores.
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