Exclusive interview of Chief Executive Officer of STAR Trade Chain Teodora Ticeric to Mediamax and Banks.am portal.

- Ms. Ticeric, please tell us the background of your appointment to the post of Executive Director of STAR Trade Chain.

Before my appointment I’ve been working at Georgian retail chain “Populi” for about a year. After the recent change of company’s shareholders, I finished my work in Georgia and promptly I received an invitation from the shareholder of CJSC STAR Divide.

I have been working in retail for over 10 years. I started working in Food distribution in Serbia, following which I worked in a retail company which was a new brand at the time. I served in that company for 6 years.  Then we acquired a number of companies and I was involved in M&As. I served in that company for 6 years. Now it’s the biggest national retail chain which was recently sold to a European player.

After this I had a consulting experience in Poland working for a Polish- American consulting company «Kolaja & Partners» for 2 years. I worked also in Ukraine, mostly in production projects. Following that I worked for a Serbian investment company.  Finally I came back to retail in 2008, and ever since I’ve worked in Ukraine, Armenia, Georgia and Turkey in different retail structures. And just now I am coming from Georgia, from the biggest retailer there.

So, this is not my first meeting with Armenia as I have already had a work experience with STAR in 2009 where I was doing production operational audit. 

- What are the key priorities the company’s shareholders have set on you and are you free to promote your own initiatives?

Our shareholders realize that the management should be free in terms of making own proposals and implementing own initiatives, based on European approaches. The main task I face today is to make the company’s profitability aligned with international retail benchmarks, remaining a law-abiding taxpayer at the same time. Here I would like to underline that in this sense we work in different competitive conditions.  But since retail is the driving force of the economy all over the world, it’s extremely important that there are proper models for the development of that sector in the country and clear rules, which will provide possibility for normal work.

People should not forget that large companies should be responsible to the state and to the public.

- In an interview to our portal, your predecessor Vahan Kerobyan said that servicing is one of the most serious challenges for STAR. Have you already viewed the problem from the consumer’s point of view? What do you think should be changed first of all?

There are different concepts on the retail market. One of them is the hard discounter, when the buyers are offered a product with a minimal extra charge. There is almost no service at all here and the price moves the buyer.

The other concept is when you go to the store and shop assistants, who sometimes even receive bonuses from the sales, gather around you. This is for example typical for textile and fashion retail. Customers need to understand that every extra service affects product prices this way or another, which is eventually paid by the customer. 

Today, STAR mostly uses the concept of discounter through its weekly promotions. It takes time to understand what our customers need: whether there is a need to re-position the brand to a higher level or it’s necessary to develop the concept of discounter, which is by the way very popular in Europe. Even in European supermarkets the service is scarce. The most important thing about the supermarket is the store cleanness and the product quality.

- You have worked at food markets of several countries: did you manage to find the most successful mechanism of work with suppliers that would best protect consumers from low-quality products?

 - Large foreign companies apply KPI system (Key Performance Indicators), which allows evaluating the performance efficiency of a company by key indicators. Distribution of KPIs by levels guarantees that the performance at each level corresponds to company’s goals set by the leadership.
We are now establishing these KPI-s which will best protect the buyer from law-quality or expired products. For example, one of the things we come across during store-checks is the presence of expired goods, which brings negative points to the store and its management.

- Aren’t you concerned with the fact that you will have to work in highly competitive conditions, moreover in a country unknown to you?

Competitive work conditions and challenges can only make the work more interesting for me, yet I think еру Armenian retail market is not overloaded.  It is a fragmented market. In this sense, there is a need to direct the consumer towards an organized trade.

In this regard I can say that the Armenian market is very interesting. It’s not like Europe, where everything was done long ago and there are no challenges. There are still challenges here and I am interested in places like this, where I can find new buyers, promote new goods and apply new practice.

- Are there going to be changes in the current management of STAR?

Yes, there will be changes. But it would be unwise to think that all the staff should be changed. There are valuable people in every company and my task is to find them and develop them.            
                                     
- What are your impressions of Armenia?

It’s a big honor for me to work in Armenia. Armenians are very hard-working people. I don’t need to exert much effort and explain my employees why they should be at the office at 9 o’clock and why they can’t relax during the whole workday. Armenians are very flexible. People living on this land adapt to changes very quickly. Every nation has its own way of thinking and Armenians are very patriarchal. I have to bear this in mind (laughs- author).

Khoren Ormanyan talked to Teodora Ticeric