JKR

Barry Chevallier Guild

Chairman of Aspall

Platform met again on Tuesday 17th January when our speaker was Barry Chevallier Guild, Chairman of Aspall. Founded in 1728, Aspall is the 10th oldest family run business in the UK, now run by the 8th generation of Chevallier’s.

 
Running a family business definitely has it challenges and Barry had some great experiences to share on building the Aspall brand.

Here are his 4 key lessons:
 
1.     Protect the product at all costs. When you need to make savings, whatever you do, don’t chip away at the value of your product.?

2.     Be precious about where you’re distributed. Your listings ultimately impacts on the reputation of your brand so you should only sell your product in places which support this. Sorry Wetherspoon’s…?

3.     Seek out fresh talent. In a family business, it can be even harder to make changes to an established team. But when things aren’t working, it’s essential to bring new people in.
 
4.     Stick to your guns. Along the way, people are always going to tell you that your idea won’t work. Hang on in there and believe in what you are doing or you’ll never know what success could follow.

Platform meets again on Tuesday 21st February when our speaker will be Hillary Graves, Co-Founder & Managing Director of Little Dish. If you’d like to come along, email Amy at amymaw@jkr.co.uk and she’ll get you onto the guest list.