Tom and the supermarket
15 January 2009

Why do Brian and Tom feel so differently about the supermarket's order for Tom Archer sausages? Here's a reminder of Tom's earlier disastrous encounter with big commerce, which led to the uneasy partnership with Brian.



Setting up
January - October 2003
Tom's business is running in a small but healthy way - organic pigs based at Bridge Farm, supplying Bridge Farm pork and sausages to local businesses. Then a supermarket chain approaches Tom. They are keen to take an order of his sausages - 300 kilos a week, a vast increase in production.

Enthusiastic Tom prepare a business plan, looks at premises and gets quotes for equipment. He'll need finance of around £60,000. But Pat and Tony think it's just too risky and refuse to back the plan.

Undaunted, Tom decides to launch the sausages under his own name. He approaches his grandmother. Peggy is prepared to support him by acting as guarantor for a bank loan, and gives him a gift of £10,000 towards expenses.

Despite his parents' anger, Tom presses ahead, recruiting part-time help: a butcher to make the sausages, Neil Carter as pigman, and Neil's wife Susan to pack the products. With a lease on a business unit at Sawyer's Farm, the exciting world of Tom Archer sausages begins. But initial sales are disappointing. Tom runs a series of in-store promotions, offering samples to shoppers, but they have no lasting effect. It's only when the supermarket drops the retail price by 30p to £2.99 (cutting Tom's margins substantially), that sales improve.

The big expansion
September 2004 - July 2005
Over the next year, things remain reasonably stable. But Tom has big ambitions for his eponymous bangers, and persuades the supermarket to expand sales into the East Midlands and the West Country. He recruits Jazzer to help Neil with the increased pig herd.

Tom's girlfriend Kirsty is concerned about the additional expenditure needed, but Tom is confident. He expands into the adjacent business unit. Susan is unhappy about the extra packing work, until Tom promises her an alternative post as office manager.

Tom falls for the new supermarket buyer, Tamsin. He dumps Kirsty and they begin a torrid relationship. But Tamsin is cold as ice when it comes to business. Disappointing sales in the new areas mean that Tom has to step up the in-store promotions again, and Tamsin insists on further discounts.

Tom has trouble financing the expansion. He has to switch feed merchants when they refuse to supply him any more. He even asks Neil if he could pay back some of loan Tom had generously given him when things were on the up. Shocked Neil can only offer £500. Eventually Peggy lends Tom £3,000 to tide him over this "temporary cashflow problem".

De-listed
August 2005
Tamsin ditches Tom for being too needy a boyfriend. Then, soon after, she hits him with the appalling news that the supermarket is ditching him too. In three months, he will lose 80 per cent of his business. He desperately tries to build up sales elsewhere, but the small amounts that customers such as The Bull and Grey Gables can take come nowhere near.

Angry Neil and Susan know their jobs are almost certainly doomed. Tony can't resist "I told you so". He and Pat are appalled at the size of Tom's debts, and reluctantly tell Tom he must bring a hugely scaled-down operation back under the Bridge Farm umbrella. Defiant Tom insists he'll go it alone, even though he has no real chance of doing so.

Brian - to the rescue?
August 2005 onwards
Aware of his nephew's troubles, Brian Aldridge takes a look at Tom's books and eventually says that he's prepared to buy a half share in the business. Tom will keep day-to-day control but they will make strategic marketing decisions together. However, the pigs will have to come over to Home Farm and the product will lose its organic status.

Pat and Tony are appalled at Tom abandoning his organic principles and at taking Brian's shilling. Tony tells Tom sooner or later he will realise it's a mistake.

Tom has to get used to Brian's role as very much the senior partner. Brian requires Tom to contribute £10,000 towards the creditors' settlement, to be taken out of Tom's wages over the next two years. He changes the packing for the sausages without consultation, and insists on a reduction in the pork content. And when Brian entertains a group of pub managers, Tom's role is relegated to overall-clad pig man.

Perhaps not surprising that, some three years, later another supermarket order has led to a huge friction between these two determined characters.

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