Scottish Grocers’ Federation
Dr. Pete Cheema OBE, Chief Executive
Born in Wolverhampton and brought up in Kent, Pete originally began a career in the banking industry. He moved to Stirling in 1988, deciding to work for himself as an independent convenience store operator, starting with a run-down corner shop that had been allowed to fall into decay, and transforming it into an award winning convenience store. He then went on to own a number of other stores, several of which also went on to be award winning.
His passion and excellence for retail operations, a focus on building community centred stores and his personal character and energy saw him elected President of the Scottish Grocers’ Federation (SGF) between 2006 and 2008, having previously served on the Board since 2000. Pete was the first non-white retailer to become President.
Pete was then appointed as Chief Executive of SGF in 2015, and since then has revolutionised it into a modern, relevant and highly influential trade body which has the ear of Scottish Government on retail matters as well as having influence at UK Government level (working with ACS). The organisation has also become a beacon for diversity across gender and ethnicity; Pete was also recently appointed to Police Scotland’s Independent Ethics Advisory Panel.
Pete is currently a Board member of the Scottish Retail Consortium and Scotland’s Town Partnership, as well as being a former lay adviser to Police Scotland from 2000 to 2018. He also sits on a number of Scottish Government committees and Glasgow’s Licensing Forum.
Pete was awarded an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2018 for services to Business, Community Cohesion and Charity, and was also awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Stirling University for his services to the retail sector in 2019.
Pauline Mullen, PA to Chief Executive and Business Manager
Pauline’s prime role within the organisation is that of PA to the Chief Executive, working with the last four Chief Executives in the post. However, her many years’ experience sees her juggling her time between that and the post of Business Manager, looking after the day-to-day running of the organisation, overseeing many areas within the business.
Angela Tansey, Events and Marketing Co-ordinator
Angela has recently joined the Federation and will be responsible for planning and delivering all SGF events. She has a breadth of knowledge and experience and has successfully managed various events from awards ceremonies to large conferences.
Isabel Finnie, Receptionist and Admin Support
Isabel is your first point of contact between 9am and 1pm. In addition to the above, both Isabel and Linda are also on hand to meet and greet any visitors to Federation House.
Linda Edington, Receptionist and Admin Support
Linda is also your first point of contact, but between 1pm and 5pm. In addition to the above, both Linda and Isabel are also on hand to meet and greet any visitors to Federation House.
Javeria Mansoor, Accounts Administrator
Javeria has recently joined the organisation as Accounts Administrator, and will be on hand to deal with any accountancy queries you may have.
Luke McGarty, Head of Policy, Public Affairs and Communications
Luke has a lead role in engaging government ministers, officials, politicians and key stakeholders within the retail industry on all policy and legislative matters which will or may potentially impact on the convenience sector and wider industry. He also ensures that key communications and messaging is prepared and distributed through a variety channels such through consultation responses, press releases and media engagement so as to ensure the industry has its points heard and taken account of by key decision makers. Luke also manages SGF’s compliance and interaction with the Scottish Parliament Lobbying Register, a key role within the organisation.
Jamie Mackie, Senior Policy, Public Affairs and Communications Officer
Jamie assists with the running of the Public Affairs Department. Playing a key role in developing and implementing the Public Affairs Plan for the organisation, he engages with Ministers, officials and members of the Scottish Parliament. Jamie also helps with the organisation of the meetings of our Cross-Party Group on Independent Convenience Stores and looks after a number of our communications to members.
Aidan Smith, Policy, Public Affairs & Communications Officer
Aidan supports the Public Affairs department in carrying out their plan to support the convenience store sector. He produces and sends out communications to our members. He is also responsible for compiling the SGF biweekly bulletin and writes articles for our Community Shop magazine.
PGMA
Martin Devlin, Commercial Manager, PGMA (Scotland) Ltd
Martin manages the SGF’s buying group, PGMA (Scotland) Ltd. With over 30 years’ experience in Scottish retail at Branch & Regional Management and Head Office functions, Martin uses his retail experience to run the dedicated PGMA team to ensure the best possible buying and distribution opportunities for Independent Convenience retailers in Scotland through working closely with our suppliers.
Gillian Hastings, Accounts Supervisor
Gill is responsible for the admin requirements for PGMA (Scotland) Ltd, processing invoices and statements for members and ensuring that suppliers are paid on time.
Go Local Programme
Jamie Buchanan, SGF Go Local Programme Director/SGF Membership Manager
Jamie has spent 33 years at senior management and Director level in Foodservices, Cash & Carry, Wholesale and Retail channels in Scotland, spending his early years in the licensed department in a Cash & Carry supplying On and Off Trade customers, before taking control of the delivered wholesale business covering Scotland and Northern England and successfully repositioned the business to supply national and local authority contracts as well as independent businesses.
In 2000, he moved into retail, taking control of 46 SPAR retail stores, and over the following 16 years grew the estate to 118 stores, during that time working closely with SPAR National and International teams to deliver a number of award winning “stores of the future”, designed to meet changing consumer demands and driving innovation in the sector. As well as managing an extensive retail estate, store design, layout, product ranging, merchandising, and stock control have also fallen under his remit.
Overlapping with his retail career, he has spent 10 years as a Director on the leading Scottish trade association, the Scottish Grocers’ Federation, and is currently working as the Membership Consultant for SGF.
He has always held charitable work close to his heart, raising over £200k for two great Scottish charities, Maggie’s and Edinburgh Sick Kids Foundation, and in 2015 led a team to the summit of Kilimanjaro raising £56k in the process.
Healthy Living
Kathryn Neil, Programme Director
Kathryn joined the programme in 2014 as a development manager covering the central and east coast part of the country, taking over the role as director in 2018. Kathryn has a wealth of experience in the convenience retail sector on which she now draws to develop long term strategy and goals for the Healthy Living Programme.
Gillian Edgar, Field Manager
As field manager Gillian is responsible for working with the key wholesale and symbol groups across Scotland. Developing activities and overseeing the roll out of Healthy Living programme initiatives across the various store estates is her key focus.
Yvonne MacDonald, Development Manager - West
Covering a vast geography across the west of Scotland, from Fort William to Dumfries, Yvonne is responsible for developing over 700 convenience stores, helping them to increase range of fruit, veg and healthier products. Arranging Big Breakfast and Healthy Living days is also key to her role.
Anna Bonner, Development Manager – Glasgow
Stretching from the densely populated areas of Glasgow and the surrounding area to the quieter areas of Cardross, Helensburgh and beyond Anna’s area has a vast array of convenience stores.
Stephanie Smith, Development Manager – North
Stephanie is responsible for advising and guiding the retailers in the North on how to promote healthier options in their stores. Stephanie’s territory starts from Dundee and stretches as far North of Scotland that is possible to travel!