Procurement Adventurer
Richard McGinn
I first met Richard when I had the pleasure of working with him and his team in 2025. Richard has a passion for food, Africa and procurement and that makes him a natural Procurement Adventurer!
How did you get started in Procurement?
I'm the classic 'fell-into-Procurement' person! I spent 2 years in Zimbabwe when I was 8 and decided to go back there in 1990 for a gap year. I landed a job at a wholesaler specialising in textiles. My manager then left and at the age of 19 I found myself running a whole trading floor. I loved it: doing the negotiations, selecting the range of fabrics and finding new products. I was trading - buying and selling - but I realised I liked the buying most.
How did you transition to Food Procurement?
I've always loved food! Mum's family were farmers - we'd be up at 5am to milk the cows or collect the eggs in the summer holidays, 7 days a week. After the textiles role, I ran a family Greek restaurant for a few years. I was then approached by a local retailer with 200 stores and became a procurement manager with a team of 8 buyers. Zimbabwe in the 00s had hyper-inflation - bank notes were in the quintillions! - which made it very hard to get suppliers to sell to us. In 2008 we moved back to the UK where I spent 6 years with Waitrose in merchandising and then buying poultry and ice-cream.
What's your current role?
I am currently Category Sourcing Manager at Ecotone, a European leader in organic and plant-based food guided by a mission to protect and nurture biodiversity. The company owns purpose-driven brands including Clipper Teas, Kallo, Bjorg & Zonnatura. My team manages third party manufacturer procurement for Tea, Coffee, Cereal Cakes, Gluten Free Cakes, Savoury Snacks and Breakfast Cereals.
How do you go about sourcing food products?
You must have a clear brief from the Marketing Team, otherwise it's so hard to know what they want. Once you have the brief, the trick is to provide a suite of options in terms of suppliers and different packaging options with the different costs and let them choose what they feel best matches their initial idea.
How do you balance a good price with sustainability?
The challenge is that if the consumer doesn't see the value in sustainability you are offering, they won't buy the product. Most of our products at Ecotone are organic - we have to position the positive sustainability benefits well so the consumer sees the value for the organic premium. A great sustainability win we had was with Clipper Teas - we removed the plastic in the tea bags and replaced it with a fully biodegradable material, removed the foil around the bags and the cellophane around the boxes, making our packaging fully recyclable or compostable.
What's your toughest negotiation?
At Waitrose with a big ice cream brand - we needed them as their products were popular but always margin diluting. It was hard to get them to budge. After a year of trying to improve the margin and failing we decided our best lever was to not list their NPD for the next summer. Long story short, the negotiation carried on for a year with many escalations. We didn't take their NPD, but by the following summer we had improved their margin to be enhancing to the category, plus they got the next year's NPD listed!
What's the trick to cost modelling?
Be prepared to have a go. Be prepared to be wrong. Be prepared to make estimates - you can always refine it later. Don't try to go after everything. Don't start by challenging the supplier's margin - look at things like specifications first.
What's the most fun thing you've bought?
Ice-cream! There are so many different flavours and qualities. Most consumers don't realise that high-quality Italian ice-creams don't contain whole cream - because the high fat content coats the tongue and inhibits the ability to taste the flavours. These sorts of ice-creams are made from milk derivatives and vegetable fats. Favourite flavours? Chocolate, Cookie Dough, Salted Caramel.
What's the funniest thing that's happened on a work trip?
On a work trip in Zimbabwe I once stayed in a hotel with no windows. In the morning, I woke up to find 3 goats in my room!
Rapid Fire
Football or Rugby?
Rugby | French Bread or Italian Cheese? Cheese | South America, Africa or Asia? Africa