Lunch seminar with John-Paul Drake at Lot Fourteen
Wednesday 12pm-1:30pm, 19 August 2020
at Lot Fourteen (Allied Health Building, Stone & Chalk)
Did you know that the Drakes team got a lot of inspiration from meeting the management of Dutch supermarket Jumbo?
| Location: Enter from North Terrace (Allied Health Building, FIXE/Stone & Chalk) | https://www.youtube.com/embed/ITYVoVMDK7w?wmode=opaque |
Background
Roger Drake opened his first supermarket in Mitcham, South Australia in 1974, employing 4 staff. Fast forward 46 years, and Drakes Supermarkets now operates over 60 stores in South Australia and Queensland, employing 5,500 staff and with an annual turnover in excess of $1 billion, with their head office operations in SA. In addition to the group’s existing Fresh Produce distribution business and Meat production centre, Drakes opened their own grocery Distribution Centre in South Australia’s Edinburgh North to become the first vertically-integrated, independently owned, family supermarket in Australia in 2019. Drakes magnificent new $125 million distribution and logistics centre in the north of Adelaide, houses 23,000 product lines and has the capacity to store over 55,000 pallets.
John-Paul joined the family business in 1990 while still in school and is now a Director of Drakes. Starting as a nightfill worker pushing trollies and stacking shelves he progressed to managing departments and then eventually entire stores. Jp spent some time in Queensland running the state operations before moving back to South Australia to take up the role of Assistant General Manager under the tutelage of Bob Soang. Having spent his entire life in the grocery industry, Jp has a keen interest in digital trends and food trends and their relevance to the grocery industry. More recently, Jp has been the driving force behind the next brand evolution of Drakes, advocating for a business that talks directly to their customers, team and suppliers and building on the culture that Roger started. His desire to be open, honest, authentic and communicative is rare in an industry that traditionally operates behind closed doors.
Want to see more from JP? Check out these links: