Pathways: Lucianne Allen, sales and marketing director, Aubrey Allen

The sales and marketing director at Aubrey Allen has been working since the age of six and is celebrating the business’s 90th birthday. She talks to Caroline Baldwin

 

Did you study a hospitality-related course college?

 

I started my career outside the industry, first studying a degree in modern languages followed by law, which led me to a career as a criminal barrister for over a decade. My love and personal ties to the hospitality world eventually led me to become professionally involved in our family butcher’s business, Aubrey Allen.

 

Did you do any work experience in the industry at a young age?

 

My siblings and I all worked in the family butcher’s shop from a very young age; we were all brought up with a philosophy of serving and looking after people. There are photos of all of us working from about age six. I would make burgers on the press in the back of the shop and make the tea round. As soon as we were tall enough to look after the counter, we served and then, when I could drive, I went to see clients in my holidays from university.

 

We all work at Aubrey Allen today: my sister Debbie is head of HR, my brother Russell is managing director and I lead the sales and marketing team.

 

How did you make the transition into a job in hospitality?

 

When I moved back into the family business I first worked in marketing and then sales and now my core role is business improvement.

 

When transitioning careers, the biggest thing I had to learn was delegation; being a barrister you are a self-employed lone wolf. Working with a team, sharing my ideas with people and delegating tasks were the biggest learning curves, but our team is everything.

 

Who is your role model?

 

My family have been incredible role models. My grandfather, Aubrey Allen, was a penniless orphan who opened his first shop in Hillfields in Coventry in 1933 and had the first slaughter licence in the town. There was a piece of land to the rear and Aubrey would slaughter the animals himself and sell them in the shop.

 

Later, my father Peter took the business from some shops in Coventry to being the most well-respected catering butcher in the UK, with his business partner Alan Healy. Together they navigated foot and mouth, BSE and recessions. The four who started the business with them are still in it today: Simon Smith, Robbie Evans, Ray Johnson and David Haines. I couldn’t ask for a more inspiring set of people to follow in the footsteps of.

 

What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced?

 

Rising inflation has been a challenge and packaging and transport are two areas where costs have risen considerably for us. However, instead of passing on that cost to the customer, Aubrey Allen is absorbing as much as possible. We have implemented initiatives to help reduce costs, including reducing non-meat deliveries, introducing package-less deliveries, and using technology to create efficiencies and allow more sales to be produced by fewer people. These actions have helped the company make a saving of £200,000 in the first year.

 

Do you have any regrets or things you wish you'd done differently?

 

I wish I had learned to delegate earlier! I had never worked in a team and was running around doing everything myself at first. I have caught up though and recently I was invited to go to a workshop on delegation – and I sent someone else in my place!

 

What are your career goals?

 

We have come so far on our 90th birthday and we are looking forward to continuing to work with incredible customers over the next 90 years. As we continue our journey, my goals are to continue helping our business and wider industry to improve. My vision is that we all work together and harness our collective power to deal with the real challenges we face in the press or in business generally.

 

I also want to encourage and inspire more women to enter the field. Only 1% of the UK’s butcher’s are women, but Aubrey Allen is levelling the playing field with 12 times the number of women on the butchery floor, and a third of leadership roles held by women. I’d love to see more of that across the industry.