South West

Katie Hopkins tells how she changed things around in this web exclusive interview... 

"Village Post Offices have always been a matter of contention. Old people seem to love them.

"Young people don't use them. Governments want to rationalise them. And locals fight for them.

"But it seems 'Buckland Brewer Post Office and Village Stores' in North Devon has a problem.

"And the winter projections were looking very bleak.

"I wanted to get stuck in.

"Most importantly, I feel committed to the South West.

"I am a Devon girl. I was born in Barnstaple. I grew up in Bideford. I went to Stella Maris Convent. I used to date the headmaster's son at Shebbear.

"Kept in line by nuns and taken out of line by a schoolmaster's son - all in the land of cream teas.

"In terms of credentials, it doesn't get better than that.

"Furthermore, business is business, and fixing business is what I do best."

Fixing businesses

"I have worked with luxury brands like LVMH in Manhattan and big corporate banks like Barclays in London's square mile, but a village post office and stores would be a challenge on a different scale.

"I was relieved to find that Keith Howell, the owner, had everything I look for with a business in trouble.

"Firstly he had recognised there was a problem.

"Recognising there is a problem is something surprisingly uncommon in business.

"When Pete Goss went about building a giant catamaran for his Team Philips Challenge, he used to hold 'bad news meetings'.

"This ensured that anyone with a problem could speak out and he had the reassurance that all the issues were on the table.

"This is a business fundamental yet one that is surprisingly uncommon.

"Secondly, Keith has personality.

"Solving a problem is easy. It is relatively simple to find someone like me who can come up with the solutions.

"What is much more difficult, is finding an individual with the personality to help fix them."

Resilience and tenacity

"A simple analogy is a female driver that gets lost.

"Unlike their male counterparts, women are smart enough to ask for directions.

"They recognise that they need help.

"However, when the helpful passer-by furnishes them with the necessary information, they rarely listen.

"You need resilience, passion, tolerance, a good sense of humour and tenacity to follow a solution through to get results.

"And Keith has all of that, in spades.

"During my time in Buckland Brewer, I spent time with the residents, Keith got stuck in with some village activities and as you would expect, we all spent some time together at the local pub.

"Find out how we got on this Weds at 7.30pm on BBC1 at 7.30pm and see whether we managed to turn things around for a small business in big trouble."

Also featured

Sam Smith investigates a loan company preying on vulnerable borrowers across the South West.

And Mike Dilger takes a peak into the private lives of otters.