Sunday 3 December 2017

The QVM Executive Who Made A Big Step Up In His Career

Mark Scott (on the right in this picture) with Malcolm McCullough at Bill's Farm deli.

When QVM Marketing Director Mark Scott ended his employment with QVM the company and became a Market Trader in the QVM Deli Hall he set up a delicious prospect for crossing boundaries, taking on new challenges, and proving once and for all that management bred executives can understand, and thrive in, the unique and intense small business environment of one of the world’s great markets.

Mark loved the market before he even considered becoming a trader and when a restructure meant his job as Marketing Director no longer existed a chain of events followed with him ending up as owner of one of our key deli businesses, along with work colleague Malcolm McCullough.

We have cheekily suggested in the heading to this article that Mark has made a big step up but that is just trader talk and we will let him make that assessment somewhere down the track. One of the first things that Mark learned is that the physical workload is intense. The gap between early morning alarms and washing your apron out at night is filled with a huge variety of tasks and the pace is fierce. 

The previous owners of Bill’s Farm made it clear that there is always something to do at every minute of the day. Mark is not complaining. In his view bloody hard work is bloody great fun. But let’s say that Mark would seriously question a change to trading hours in the Deli Hall that involved a longer working day. 

This is not the first time that Mark has thought of transitioning from corporate executive to hands-on innovator. In his career he has thought on a number of occasions “I would like to develop that idea”, and this is his chance. He and Malcolm are not contemplating drastic changes to the business. They have made a slight change to the business logo, incorporating reference to QVM, but the business name and the shopfront will remain the same. Essentially they will be building on the incredibly strong traditions created by the previous owners. Mark says the phrase that captures their intent is “Bringing farm fresh produce, family and friends, together”.

In keeping with modern retail practice they will be strengthening their contact with customers through social media and Mark’s partner, Hakim, is a digital marketing specialist, so that will help.


Mark and Malcolm love the community of traders at QVM and look forward to putting their stamp on one of our key Deli Hall businesses as the market moves forward into a challenging new era of retailing.