Leaders Forum: Angus McKay, CEO and Managing Director, 7-Eleven

As part of the 2022 C&I Industry Leaders Forum, Angus McKay, CEO and Managing Director, 7-Eleven Australia, discusses the organisation’s journey towards a billion customer moments.

C&I: What have been the highlights for 7-Eleven over the past 12 months?

McKay: About a year ago we become an agile empowered organisation. We implemented agile because we believed that our old organisational structure would not enable us to deliver on our 2030 ambition of a billion customer moments.

Where agile is up and flourishing, I can clearly see the capacity, the renewed energies, the vibrancy of the people within our organisation.

While we’ve all had a steep learning curve, myself included, a highlight for me is seeing what the change in working method has enabled the team to achieve.

We’ve launched into three new regional markets, investing in providing jobs for regional communities.

Our digital transformation has been brilliant. We have a market leading offer and a team that are learning to leverage not only the technology we have invested in but the insight we gain from the program.

Another highlight for me is our work to support our communities in what have been some really challenging times. Our teams worked tirelessly in the past year to provide access to essentials in local neighbourhoods wherever possible. Additionally, the teams have ensured that tonnes of food that would have gone to waste due to temporary store closures or supply chain disruptions due to flooding, COVID isolation requirements or other unforeseen events, has been redirected to our community partners to ensure it gets into the hands of people that needed it.

C&I: What will be your main priorities for the remainder of 2022?

McKay: Our priority in 2022 is to stay laser focused on our customers and supporting our store teams through the implementation of a range of new offers and innovations.

Specifically, in the second half of 2022 we’ll be delivering a step change in our food offer, and significant new digital capability which will make shopping with us more convenient.

We are also continuing to expand into new communities in regional areas. Our first stores in North Queensland open this year, and we’re continuing to grow in regional markets in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia.

C&I: What is your company doing to meet changing customer demands?

McKay: In addition to our work in food and digital, we are expanding our trial of micro market stores and continuing to work on the evolution of our layout and product range.

Essentially, our work on format is about having the right product range, where and when it’s convenient for our customers. We’re trialling several formats, each one is slightly different, they’re geographically different, and what we’re trying to therefore learn is how that impacts the way customers play with us, what customers take out of each of those stores.

C&I: What does your crystal ball say about the year ahead in convenience?

McKay: It’s going to continue to be a challenge to predict customer shopping patterns and industry disruptions, but that is likely to only make the ambition we set for ourselves several years ago even more relevant. Digital experiences that provide personalised convenience and value across many different customer occasions and needs will be the essential basics customers will expect our industry to provide.

Customers will expect Australian convenience operators to provide a range of choices in food and beverage across all times of the day, whether they are looking for a treat, an everyday classic or a healthier choice; we need to be providing delicious, great value and credible alternatives to quick service restaurant ranges.

Convenience operators will need to move faster, adapt to change more nimbly, and bring customer needs to the forefront of their decision making at both a micro and a macro level. As an industry we need to know our customers, and to an extent we already do that. However, we need to take that to the next level and make customer feedback part of the iterative evolution of our stores, formats, services and offer.

C&I: What do you enjoy most about what you do?

McKay: What I enjoy most is being part of a team of brilliant people who deliver a world class offer to our customers. Being part of a team where the energy, passion, and creativity is contagious makes coming to work a joy. Seeing people grow and develop and achieve extraordinary things for our customers and our business is really rewarding.