Culture is everything, says Spinneys Chief

Starting as a shelf packer in 1994, Sunil Kumar saw his way up to become the Chief Executive Officer of Spinneys and under his leadership, the company went public. To him, Spinneys’ secret to success is the company culture.  

Setting the tone for his SOLOx speech, Kumar introduced Spinneys as a brand with 100 years of heritage, which was started in 1924 by a trader named Arthur Rawdon Spinney in Alexandria, Egypt. Here’s an excerpt of Spinneys’ growth intertwined with Kumar’s.

“The first Spinneys store, spanning 25 sqm, in the UAE came up at Al Nasr Square. It was the first store in the UAE that sold frozen chicken. That was the brand’s unique selling proposition. From that one store, today we have a network of 79.

Back in 1994, as a fresh graduate, I was looking for jobs. The only job available was in Spinneys and I accepted the offer primarily to get a residence visa with plans to move on to something better within six months. My stint at Spinneys started as a shelf packer in the store located opposite Al Muraqqabat police station. Soon I realised that Spinneys is different as a business due to its culture of taking care of people – customers and employees.

Instead of my initial plans of leaving in six months, I started focusing on the business. Gradually, I became a department head followed by trainee manager, store manager, commercial manager, operations manager, COO and CEO. Over the years, I’ve realised how important it is for a business to have a sense of purpose and a people centric culture.

Our business has also had to navigate challenges. For instance, when I took over as CEO, I had three major challenges to overcome. First, our system was hacked, and we lost all information and couldn’t even open our stores. Pandemic was another challenge and getting public listed was the third. But we overcame each challenge successfully, because of our people who worked together and our culture of taking care of the business and our stakeholders.”