Embarking on a retail career was not something Wilmot planned. Interestingly, Wilmot’s background is in medical science.
“When I finished my Medical Science degree, I was faced with the prospect of becoming a teacher or washing test tubes. So little was spent on research in Australia that the job prospects were not great. I was also quite ambitious and wanted a comfortable income in the future, so I decided not to go into medical science,” he said.
Wilmot then travelled around Australia and the world for four years, working in a variety of hands-on roles. He saw all these roles as an opportunity to gain experience while travelling. He then began training as a restaurant manager, which taught him to love the organisational and physical elements of being in business.
“Working as a Manager at Pizza Hut was one of the most experiential learning experiences I’ve had. A lot of the operations were learned on the job in those days. As a young manager, I had full responsibility of the restaurant from sales to profit. It was a fantastic way to learn cause and effect across the financials, while at the same time developing people management skills,” he recalled.
After spending 14 years in the restaurant business, working at various venues in Brisbane, Mt Isa, Gold Coast and Darwin before finally moving to Melbourne, he decided it was time for a career change. At this time, his children were starting school and Wilmot was keen to leave the night and weekend work behind.
“I had intended to have six months off work. However, after three months I found I was restless and ready to return to work, so I decided to see what positions were available.
“The first advertisement I looked at was a retail role, which I thought was worth investigating. At that moment, my mother rang, telling me that she had spotted a job for me in the paper.
It turned out to be the same one. I felt this had to be predestined, and applied for the position.
“The retail position appealed to me as a refreshing change after being in a corporate model for a long time in restaurants. I was also keen to work with franchisees, as they have a different set of motivations due to their personal interests in the business,” Wilmot said.
Having developed a strong background in management skills through his experience at Pizza Hut, he saw the District Manager position at 7-Eleven as a good starting point to learn the business. As a District Manager, he had to coach and influence 10-15 franchisees to follow 7-Eleven’s systems, build their businesses and protect and grow profit for franchisees and franchisors. Wilmot also had to add value and coach franchisees in the business system and provide observations and feedback to the corporate entity.
Sixteen months into the role, Wilmot was appointed Victorian State Manager. Two years later, the responsibility for NSW State Manager was added on top of his Victorian role. Operations for two states were a major challenge.
“I had to turn over the entire NSW management team and re-invigorate the NSW franchisees. The business was progressing in survival mode, so my first job was to grow trust and improve the quality of our franchising processes to move the business from survival to growth.
“Sales and store numbers improved, which resulted in growth in our income streams – and of course, a solid P&L allowed us to consistently reinvest and grow the business. Even until today, many of the processes we use in the business stem from that time. It was the hardest, most challenging work I had ever done and I loved every minute of it.”
Wilmot’s acumen for the business was quickly recognised and in January 2002, the National Marketing role was added to his span of control. In November 2002, he was appointed CEO of 7-Eleven.
Speaking on his appointment as CEO, Wilmot describes the decision to apply for the role as another of his biggest challenges. “I had effectively been doing a COO role, working for a great MD who gave me plenty of autonomy. When he announced he was retiring at 55, I had to decide whether to go for the role, or break in a new boss.”
“I had the best job in the world, and to take the step up meant I had to supervise my peers and take on areas in which I had no formal skills, like finance, IT and marketing. But I got the job, and six years later can claim some measures of success with the position,” he said.
One thing that Wilmot feels has helped him greatly is learning to hire and retain functional experts to fill roles in the company.
“These people are each fantastic in their own field. If you find the right people, learn to trust them and ask the right questions along the way, it does get much easier. I had done the odd course or two in many of those areas and could understand most of what they do. What I needed to do then, was to bring all those individual elements together to achieve business goals, while at the same time, giving each of them the space to do what they do best.”
In 2007, 7-Eleven launched the ‘Energising Everyone’ plan – a ten-year blueprint for the company’s growth. The program underpins a $22 million, five-year investment the company is making to continue to set world class benchmarks in the Australian convenience retailing industry.
“Our ‘Energising Everyone’ program has refocused our business and our franchisees on more profitable growth categories, such as Slurpee and freshly prepared food through the ‘munch’ range.
“We’ve recognised that changing consumer tastes have led to declining sales in traditional core convenience store products such as confectionery and tobacco, so we had to introduce new product offerings to excite customers and help drive revenues.
As a result, we developed and launched ‘munch’, our proprietary fresh food brand that offers customers a wide variety of fresh, ready to eat products that are easy to grab and eat on the go.
“An extensive product review was also undertaken for the Slurpee range to ensure its relevance to our target audience.
In 2008, we introduced a revitalisation program for the Slurpee brand which comprised of product innovation, a new packaging for the cups and the development of a ‘Slurpee Zone’ that acts as a magnet. The program produced sensational results, with a 20 per cent increase in sales and profit. We have also introduced new products such as public transport tickets and ATM services in many of our stores, which have increased both foot traffic and sales.
“Just 10 months after its launch, our franchisees and customers are already reaping the benefits of the re-investment and reinvigorating program. Franchisee and company profits are up 19 per cent, customer satisfaction is at record high levels and we are rapidly carving out a reputation as the franchisor and employer of choice,” Wilmot said.
Most recently, 7-Eleven was named the 2008 Franchisor of the Year by the Franchise Council of Australia for its continued product and store innovation, strong franchisee partnerships and consistent growth in recent years. The award recognises 7-Eleven’s continued investment in its brand and in-store experience which has kept the brand relevant to changing consumer needs, with many 7-Eleven stores being refurbished in the last two years.
“We are delighted to be recognised as a best practice business both in retailing and in the overall franchise sector. The award reflects the commitment and efforts of our staff and our 340 franchisees across Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.
“Looking ahead, we are committed to investment in the business and our franchise support systems so we can continue to lead the way in convenience retailing. There is a huge opportunity to be better attuned to meeting customers’ changing needs by simply doing what we do in a better way.
“We have a number of exciting products in the pipeline that can be tailored for each store to meet customer needs in a specific location faster. We recently announced an Australian-first lottery distribution arrangement that will see the launch of TattsQuick throughout 165 7-Eleven stores across Victoria. Our existing infrastructure also allows us to deliver electronic services for other businesses, which is another area of potential growth.
“We continue to be excited by the potential in our business and for our franchisees in being part of a business model that works for all of us,” Mr Wilmot concluded. “As we still have eight years to go in our ‘Energising Everyone’ program, there is still much to do.”
