Independent Swords retailer JC’s Supermarket recently laid off 20 long-term employees with the closure of its butcher counter, however the family-owned company’s managing director Michael Savage is confident that the business can turn around.
In an interview with Dublin Inquirer, Savage explained that “Competition has been very tough over the past couple of years. Lidl being next door makes things difficult. […] Some of the larger multiples what they’re doing at the moment are hard for us to compete with."
He added: “Without the massive buying power that some of the multiples have, we are forced to take a smaller margin than they can.”
Savage explained that the closure of the store's butcher counter on March 26th last, with the loss of 20 jobs, was “the most difficult decision that ever faced the Savage family,” and followed a drop in sales for the counter of around 15% last year.
“We have to run a tight ship,” he said. “If you go back about seven years, we had about 200 staff, and now we have 150, and that’s going down to 130.
"We’re keeping everything tight and trying to drive more efficiencies throughout the business - that’s what we have to do to stay alive.”
The full interview can be found here
© 2016 - Checkout Magazine by Stephen Wynne-Jones
