By Andrew Hunt.
“If the Conservative party wants to get on a roll and bake in a win for 2024, then it’s time to do a Greggs” says Andrew Hunt.
For over a decade the Conservative party has failed to look after the British people or its grass roots.
Unless it can radically reinvent itself, Britain’s oldest political party will not survive. So where should it look to for a new direction?
The answer may surprise you. But there is no better model than Northern powerhouse and much-loved British food-to-go retailer, Greggs.
Just like the Conservative party, Greggs was, for decades, a steady enterprise. But after the financial crisis, things went badly wrong. As high streets struggled, customers stopped coming. Sales and profits tanked, and Greggs was left facing the abyss.
It was then that Greggs’ brought in a radical new CEO, Roger Whiteside. In the following decade, Whiteside transformed Greggs from an outdated bakery chain into one of the country’s largest and most profitable food-to-go retailers. Customers grew, sales rebounded, and shares are up tenfold since those dark days.
Greggs’ incredible turnaround provides the perfect model for the Conservative Party. To reclaim its position as Britain’s political force and revive our national pride does not require a miracle. All we have to do is embrace a few big ideas.
Greggs’ incredible turnaround provides the perfect model for the Conservative Party.
So what can the Tories learn from Greggs?
The first thing Whiteside did at Greggs was to Seek a Mandate for Radical Change. As Roger himself says, you first have to recognise when things are only going to get worse without radical change. As Greggs shows, an organisation that embraces radical change can become even stronger than it was before.
The Conservative Party needs to do the same by explicitly. That means pursuing a voter-led agenda. It requires a leadership courageous enough to face down every one of Britain’s problems and to fix them completely. No more fiddling. And it requires a consistency of purpose. Every single policy must fit with conservative values. Then and only then can we rebuild the brand and rebuild trust.
Every single policy must fit with conservative values. Then and only then can we rebuild the brand and rebuild trust.
Not only was Greggs’ turnaround radical, it was Customer-Led. Gregg’s went out and asked their customers what they wanted and what they didn’t like. They studied other successful high street chains and copied them. Greggs triumphed because it did not dictate to its customers. Instead, they observed them, asked them and gave them exactly what they wanted. Per Whiteside:
Part of the success of Greggs is that it doesn’t stand still – a self confessed adrenalin junkie, Roger said that the trick is to stay one step ahead.
The key, he says is much more than giving customers what they want, second-guessing the market to come up with the Next Big Thing. Much of that, he says, involves spying on the competition.
“It’s about giving customers what they want, and what they want before they know they want it. And that is hard.”
This is the big lesson the party needs to relearn. It requires a complete change in attitude. Take the Chesham & Amersham by-election. The voters told the party they did not want HS2 and their last vestiges of green-space sold out to rapacious developers. Instead of listening to locals, CCHQ sent an apparatchik from London to talk at them and tell them why they were wrong. No wonder they got thrashed. This is symptomatic of a party that has spent a decade seducing foreign billionaires and corrupt property developers while stripping its membership of any involvement. The Conservatives cannot survive without voters any more than Greggs could survive without customers.
This is symptomatic of a party that has spent a decade seducing foreign billionaires and corrupt property developers while stripping its membership of any involvement.
With that in mind, the Conservatives need to follow Greggs and Go Big on Digital Engagement. For twenty years, the world’s most successful companies, from Amazon to Lidl, have built customer loyalty through digital engagement. A simple app is a great way to forge a relationship with millions of passionate voters by giving them a real voice. You could have features like Virtual Chancellor, allowing voters to have their say on departmental budgets and tax rates. In this day and age, The Prime Minister really should be testing every policy proposal in real-time. Doing so would have avoided all the unforced errors like Net Zero and HS2. Those in charge would have better understood the damage done by Covid restrictions. And most crucially, voters would feel they were participating in democratic government, rather than being excluded.
Something else the Tories should note is that Greggs pulled off its turnaround without using any debt. Instead, Greggs the baker transformed itself by living within it means, being resourceful and treating every penny of shareholder’s money with care.
After the catastrophe of Truss’ mini-budget, the party badly needs to rebuild its reputation for Financial Responsibility and Value for Money. Financial responsibility matters to voters. We can all see that government profligacy is exacerbating our cost of living crisis, stealing from the futures of our children and setting us up for a Greek-style financial crisis. It’s time to follow the example of the late, great Lord Lawson, and cut our cloth to suit. That begins with slashing wasteful government spending and excessive bureaucracy.
It’s time to follow the example of the late, great Lord Lawson, and cut our cloth to suit. That begins with slashing wasteful government spending and excessive bureaucracy.
And lastly, the party could learn a lot from Greggs’ highly successful Communication Strategy. Greggs is a straight talker. It doesn’t claim to be something it is not or to promise what it cannot deliver. Its social media is humorous and flippant.
When they communicate, Tories need to lighten up a bit and tell it how it is. No more virtue-signalling, no more preaching and absolutely no more wokery. It grates with the public, and frankly, politicians have not earned the right to talk down to anyone. Let’s have less Justin Welby and more Lee Anderson!
In summary, Greggs is the perfect metaphor for a Tory turnaround. Greggs had the courage and leadership to recognise when only radical change will do. They had the humility and self-awareness to listen to and give their people exactly what they want. They let themselves be led by their customers – with no cheating, no lying and no patronising. They had the foresight to embrace digital engagement to build loyalty and understand their customers. And they did it all with a constant focus on financial responsibility and value for money.
The result is one of Britain’s best-loved and democratic businesses. Best of all, Greggs is not just some London-centric fad or offshore shell company.
This is a truly British business at the heart of communities – one that is known for supporting good causes and looking after its staff. Most importantly, what Greggs shows is that there can be no great turnaround if you don’t bring the British people with you.
If the Conservative party wants to get on a roll and bake in a win for 2024, then it’s time to do a Greggs!
Author Andrew Hunt graduated from Cambridge with a Law degree in 2003.
He worked in TV production before moving into finance. It was here that he became fascinated by how personal investors and small companies could turn negligible resources into enormous fortunes. Applying the same mindset and principles, Hunt was able to retire in his thirties. He now invests in interesting projects which aim to make the world a better place and runs a radical centre-right environmental think tank. He is also the author of Better Value Investing.
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