The Customer-First Mindset Driving Change at Holland & Barrett

Well, welcome to season 10 of the award-winning Retail Tea Break podcast. My name is Melissa Moore, The Retail Advisor I'm a retail educator, trainer and retail conference MC, and each week as your host, I'll be joined by industry experts, retailers, and brands to dispel the myths, share their knowledge and give you an insight into the retail industry. There's over a hundred episodes for you to listen back to on your favorite podcast platform, or of course, go and watch us over on YouTube, but while you're there, please do hit that follow button so that you get to listen first every week.

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So in the meantime, grab a cup of tea, sit back and enjoy season 10 of the glorious Retail Tea Break podcast. This episode of the Retail Tea Break podcast is brought to you by SCAYLE, the enterprise commerce platform that helps brands and retailers create outstanding customer experiences with a seamless and flexible feature set that can be extended through APIs, trusted by brands like Levi Strauss®️, Harrods, Manchester United and Deichmann, SCAYLE enables businesses to accelerate innovation and drive real growth.

So for more information, visit SCAYLE.com today. Today I am joined by a senior finance leader operating at the heart of a major retail transformation. Her background spans digital, e-commerce, and technology led businesses across multiple markets.

She's known for scaling high growth companies, navigating complex challenges and driving real commercial impact. Alongside her executive role, she supports startups as an investor and mentors future business leaders. She's a familiar voice, of course, on a global retail stage, speaking at some of the industry's biggest events, and she's someone who believes strong performance and great customer outcomes go hand in hand. Vineta Bajaj, Group Chief Financial Officer for Holland & Barrett, welcome to the Retail Tea Break podcast.

Thanks for having me. Thrilled to have you on. I know we've been trying to do this for months now. You've got this amazing background in the industry and you are embedded in, in quite a different area than I think most people are used to hearing to.

So very excited to have this conversation. But look to kick us off, in the age old tradition of the Retail Tea Break podcast, in the time that it takes to boil a kettle, which I am told is about two minutes... tell us a little bit more about you and your amazing background in this industry. You have a different kettle to me.

That's for sure. Oh... Yeah, yeah, my kettle takes a lot longer for sure, but.. Is it an Irish kettle?

I've gotta ask that. It definitely, it definitely is. And it always breaks and I have to use my warranty every year. It's like I'm cursed with kettles, right?

So, yeah, but that, that's the finance person in me talking. So my background, so thank you, I'm Venita, I'm Irish. I'm from Limerick. And my background is finance, but in retail.

So, you know, I trained in KPMG, Big Four. Just did a classic finance route, but the businesses that I operated in was quite key. So I worked for a company called Kerry Group, which you'd know in the UK as Kerry Foods. So think Richmond Sausages, you know, Innocent Juices, these types of products you find in the, the grocery store.

But obviously at a global scale, ingredients and flavors. So, you know, 6, 7 billion revenue in nearly every country in the world, which is crazy 'cause in Ireland they're like butter. Just like, yeah, the butter, the really good butter, right? I then moved to the UK and I worked for a company called Ocado Group.

So Ocado at the time was a 500 million revenue online retailer only, had just opened its second warehouse. And in the time that I was there, I was part of a lot of key strategic initiatives. I suppose scaling the business, helping the business internationalize, I raised about 2 billion for the business across a bunch of financing instruments and was part of a lot of the, I suppose the international contracts and then the realizing those international contracts. So I grew it from a finance perspective.

And then I left and I became Group CFO of a company called Rohlik Group. So Rohlik Group is an online grocery business in Europe, so think ocado.com, but in Europe is the best way I describe it. The difference is Rohlik group are same day grocery.

They have different type of automated warehouses, different technology, profitable, and so when I was there, we grew the business from 500 million to 1.2 billion, reduced the burn of the business, and raised $170 million on an up round of a 2 million value, 2 billion valuation. While I was there, I also, I did some M & A , but I also took over the chief people officer role for nearly a year. I would not recommend that as a finance person.

So, minor point, it's two sides of your brain. Very difficult. It's like, but people, but money. People...

money. Very challenging. And then I left and I came to Holland and Barrett. So I'm now Group CFO here at Holland and Barrett.

You mentioned that I do things at the side. You know, I am very keen on supporting an industry that I'm interested in and people in that, so I spent a lot of time with, it's not just founders and startups, it's interesting technology that can help the retail space, right? Retail is a, a huge interest to me, you know? Where I've done these amazing businesses like Ocado, which is a, a logistics, a technology, and a retail business.

And Rohlik is a logistics technology and retail business. And Holland and Barrett, which we'll talk about is also a retail business, but has strong logistics and strong technology. For me, I gravitate to businesses where I can kind of get what they're doing, right? I'm not really a smart person, so I kind of, I, I can't do all these funky instruments.

For me, I'm like, would I buy it? Would I download it? Does it come when I want it? These types of things help me identify the, the customer proposition, which is really, really key for me.

So businesses that I support or advise are, they can be global. There's online grocery in, in Asia that I've supported. There's also some really interesting tech startups like, you know, QR codes in restaurants that allow, you know, different shops to go online quicker, technology stacks that allow businesses to, you know, integrate with Uber Eats or Deliveroo quicker. Anything that basically unlocks the high street quicker, whether it's technology, logistics or even, a product.

I'm an investor in a fantastic sustainable hummus business. Really interesting things, and I love that stuff, right? It just, it just variety of spice of life. And then I mentor students through the University of Cambridge and actually I sit on the University of Limerick's board as well for the business school.

Quiet life then, really quiet life. And I have three cats. Very important, right? That is important.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Depends on their mood. They love me or hate me.

Depends. Yeah. I love this. Incredible.

And do you know what, I think you've summed up really well there why I'm such a fan girl because, met you for the first time last year and I wanna talk about something you said on stage when I met you for the first time last year. And we'll come to that. I also obviously wanna come back to this idea of the whole HR head and finance, but you come at things from a very different way, as in it is customer first. And I definitely wanna jump into that because I think there's probably a misconception out there about CFOs and its numbers.

But actually you are looking at the bigger picture constantly and that's fascinating. So to bring us, I suppose, bang up to date then, and almost to work backwards, you joined Holland and Barrett about six months ago at the stage. And I love the fact that, again, you are so open and honest because you want to help those in the industry kind of grow and also see what's going on, and I suppose share your insights. And you've been doing this brilliantly on LinkedIn for the last couple of months.

What are the significant lessons, or I suppose what are the lessons that you can share with us that you've learned over the last few months? So one thing that I've learned personally, right? And one of the reasons I wanted to join Holland and Barrett, and actually let me step back. I love working for businesses that are on a mission.

And what I mean by that is it's a, it's a disruptive mission, right? It's something that really will transcend our lifetimes. In Ocado it was you know, changing the way the world shops. So online grocery, that impact is so significant.

Rohlik it was "Eat well Live well." But effectively, you know, because it was online grocery, but we were very particular about the SKUs we put on. We didn’t sell eggs from caged hens. We made sure there was a farm to fork offering.

You know, we put the customer proposition first at the expense of the P & L, which is the right thing to do because if you have happy customers, they'll come back. And the P & L can't tell you any of that, right? And with Holland and Barrett, it's adding quality years to life. And, and when you really step back and you think about those three types of missions, it's not some tagline that you could just, you get behind and go, yes, of course I'm doing a good job.

It's actually, if people take the relevant supplements or they change the, their lifestyle slightly, the impact, you may not feel it right now, you might feel a bit better now, but actually later on, as we all age and we're living longer, the last couple of years of our lives will probably be just better, right? And you trust me, you cannot do that in a financial business case, I'll tell you that, right? I mean. I'm trying to work out what that would look like.

I don't even know, right? The quality index, I have literally no idea, right? Fascinating. But, but that's the whole point, you have to look past it.

And that's why businesses I've worked in look past it. The one thing that I didn't have experience in where, which is why I wanted to join Holland and Barrett, was, my entire background is, although it's retail, I've never worked in a business that has stores, right? Which has been really interesting. That's been, that's a learning for me personally, right?

Because the mindset of colleagues, the most amazing colleagues we have, the culture and how the values come through in the store and how they transcend to, to the customer who walks in. It's just something I've ever experienced and it's been a huge learning for me. So, you know, when I think about online grocery. We were very obsessed in my previous companies about the, the end last mile, because the only touch point the customer has to your entire brand is the dude on the doorstep who hands you your bags, right?

And we've all resonated that when you've been in the grocery store and you get to the checkout and somebody, you know, there's a, I don't know, there's like a girl scout or something that's like, "oh, I'll pack your bags for you", and you're like uh, and we all experience that, "okay, sure", and then they start putting, and you start like side eyeing them, watching it, right? That's it. The eggs are smashed and the bread is squashed, and Yeah! And, and then you're like, "thank you, here's a fiver.

Thank you!" Right? You're just kinda like, you know, or you're like, "here's a fiver, I will do it. Thank you.

You're fine." Right? It's really interesting, right? And that's because we have, humans have actually have an emotional connection to food, right?.

The connection with food, it's really weird because that's what you put in your bodies, right? So when the person delivers that groceries to you, you wanna feel like that, that guy probably packed your groceries for you, right? Actually, a robot did it, but that doesn't matter. And how that transcends in the customer connection in the store has been a fascinating learning for me because it needs thousands of humans doing the same thing and living the same values.

And all of that is very important when it comes to, again, firstly the people side, but actually how we train them. So in Holland and Barrett, you know, in the last financial year, we invested over 200,000 hours into our colleagues, where they were trained to qualify to advise. 'cause one of the, the fascinating things about Holland and Barrett, in the segment 'cause wellness is one of the largest segments growing in the high street, outside of grocery, and it's also the closest retail segment to grocery, you know, because you have those products in stores as well.

What's absolutely fascinating is you know, if you have an ailment, you call the doctor, right? Mm-hmm. Then you, you might go to a pharmacy, a Boots or something like that, right? And you'll go there.

And then you might go, you might be in Boots and you might say, oh actually, I need some vitamin D or something, or where are your vitamins and someone will say, oh, it's like aisle five or something, right? But actually, where do you go when you have something like, we have so much technology, like my watch, it tells me my sleep score is terrible. I'm chasing my biological age or something. And I'm like, God, I didn't sleep very well last night, you know?

But I don't need to call the doctor. I probably don't need a blood test, but I have this data that's telling me that my quality's going down, so there's something happening in my body, right? If I go to the pharmacist, they'll go "go to the doctor", or they'll say, "oh, you probably need X", or they'll point you to a, to vitamins or something, right? But the, you know, we actually talk in the business that, like Holland and Barrett is kind of the, you know, one of the greatest secrets of the high street because you go into Holland and Barr not to have a browse, you actually go in with intent, right?

There's a reason you walk into our store, right? You walk in going, you know, "I'm a bit more tired when I wake up the last couple of weeks, and I don't know why." You don't wanna put pressure on the NHS, right? You're not gonna call the doctor, but something has changed in your body.

You don't know. And our colleagues are qualified to literally advise. And once they understand that, be able to then suggest what to buy and what that will supplement you. But also they, they actually, and I watched this myself on Grafton Street in Dublin.

'cause I, that was the first store I went to, obviously. Going to see all the Irish stores, was I'd watched our colleagues turn people away. You know, this guy came in and he said, look, I've got this... you know, she said, can I help you?

And he said, oh, I'm just browsing. She said, yeah, but like, you know, let me help you browse. What do you need? And he was like, oh, I had a cold a few weeks ago, but since then, I'm better now.

But since then, every time I go play tennis, it takes me longer to recover. Which is an interesting symptom, that's not doctor worthy or pharmacist worthy, right? And actually, after a couple of questions, she just turned around to him and said, look you need a blood test because I don't, you might have an iron deficiency. So, there's nothing I can sell you and there's nothing I can point you to.

You need to go get a blood test. And what happens is people remember that because they go, this person didn't try to sell me something. They tried to help me. Yeah.

And then they come back and go, "Hey, I got my blood test" right? Or they go onto our website or our app because we're, we're investing a lot in being an omnichannel retailer because people come in for, "I'm a bit tired". Oh, okay, cool. I'll buy this.

Or "I got my blood test". Okay, cool. I'll buy this. But they may not wanna come to the store again.

They might want to do a subscribe and save on the website, or they might just want, because that's the convenience that we offer. And so that's really what surprised me was just the connection that really brings, brings it back to, what is the purpose of the high street and what is the purpose of the store on the high street? Is it a shop? Does it show value of your brands?

Is it a showcase of your brands? Is it a way to create community? These are the types of things that, is absolutely developing under our eyes, and that's what I'm learning in Holland and Barrett. I love this.

And again, even the, and no joke of a lie. Even this morning I was in one of the stores and absolutely no joke of a lie here. There's something really trustworthy about your people and they are your people, your colleagues there in the shop. Because it's one of those brands that I trust, I'm loyal to because as you say, it's not about selling.

It feels like support. It feels like education. And as a shopper, I'm always open to that when I go in because I know it's really genuine. A; people know their product, which is quite rare actually in retail nowadays.

I spend a lot of my time obviously training people. The unbelievable knowledge of the staff is such a skill, but they're listeners as well, which again is quite rare nowadays in retail. So I love the fact that what you are seeing is certainly what I'm seeing as a shopper, and I know an awful lot of people watching and listening to this will see as well. And it's really building on everything Holland and Barrett is about, and I suppose you are, you are bringing that through with you, which again, for CFO is quite different.

And you're right to the point about the trusted brand, right? Because what we find is that people want to shop. And again, if you think about the role of how people are shopping, right? We have, we have four or five generations now who have purchasing power.

You've got my grandparents, my parents, me, if I had kids, and then you've got Gen Alpha, right? I skipped my cats. My cats can't buy anything. Be interesting actually.

I wonder if I could do that. Anyway, never mind. So therefore you have different people, right? But also younger generations are being more educated on, they're educated on their own health.

And you're seeing that where, alcohol consumption's going down, health trends are going up, but also that that drives misinformation through social media. And so what happens is people start seeing things like, oh, I should take X or Y. And then they might buy it online on TikTok or something and they'll come back and go, oh, it's not doing what it is for me. And then they'll end up wanting to go to a store or to someone to go, "what should I take for the symptom?"

'Cause this one thing wasn't working. And so we drive a lot of, we actually have a very large org of scientists, who absolutely look at the efficacies of all our products, especially our own brand. We've actually co-author, co-authored some scientific journals as well. So we've done a lot of investment into being trusted.

And, a lot of the, it's not the advertising, but a lot of the work we do is around facts, not fads. It's really trying to make sure that, when people say, oh, use this, and then every ad on TikTok tells you to use it, and you're like, well I must use it. She looks amazing. Obviously this is gonna make me look 10 years younger.

Actually when you get into it, that might not be the issue. But actually what's the underlying root cause, that again helps you add quality years to life with a trusted brand that is gonna be good for you, is something that we really spend a lot of time on. And I, I see that as well. I think as, again, as a shopper looking at this, which is certainly the way I do, I'm seeing that in store, I'm seeing it online, as you say, and it's marrying beautifully with the app, which again, sounds really obvious nowadays in retail, but it's not happening out there everywhere.

However, the messaging or the clarity I see as a shopper is there across all your channels. Yeah. And that's one of the reasons why I was quite excited about this business, right? Because, where I have spent most of my career in retail, actually, the businesses I've actually spent my time and my interest is in the technology and logistics and operations that enables retail.

So when you described as that, how you marry that up, how do I make sure I have the right SKUs in the right range, in the right stores? How do I make sure that if I do a click and collect, it's in the store today or tomorrow, depending. How do I make sure that the person can buy something online and get it tomorrow? Again, getting that right customer proposition, while also making sure I don't run out stock.

These are really simple things. The other thing is we've recently just relaunched our loyalty program, so making sure that we can, we've actually built a huge amount of our tech. And what I mean by that is we've got over 500 engineers and technologists in our business who are, which is crazy 'cause you're kinda like little old Holland and Barrett? But little old Holland and Barrett is like a 1 billion revenue business with over a thousand stores, which is a bit crazy.

But making sure that all our data and our technology seamlessly works is something that we've chosen to build all our technology and not buy. And what that means is that we're able to understand how people choose what they shop, and how frequently they do it, what they pair with to what we thought they would pair it with. So therefore, when we push personalizations, we're not pushing personalizations to increase margin. We're pushing it because we understand the journey that they're on, which again, is this trusted part of going well, I could say, oh, why don't you go buy vitamin D and I push them my own brand vitamin D that has higher margin, or I go, they never bought vitamin D, so why would I push that?

Actually, they're on something else. And actually what's really interesting is the impact of GLP-1, so the weight loss drugs. People talk about, and you're seeing it in grocery stores where the grocery stores are now having GLP-1 friendly aisles for food because it's a huge amount of population on that, right? But where Holland and Barrett have a number of supplements that supports that, but every journey is different.

What you find actually through the health and wellness sector is that beauty is actually growing and why is that? Right? But what happens is people who take GLP-1 or on that fitness journey, or the weight loss journey, they start, it's gonna sound weird looking at themselves. Want to take care of their appearance.

Makes sense though! Of course. And so with that, which is absolutely fascinating, what we found is our beauty range is growing because, whether it's collagen or whether it's face masks, or whether it's certain beauty and we have our own beauty range as well now, which is really important. So it's about really understanding what people use, using the data to tell us, how we invest our money into which new products or which partners we want to partner with to make sure, again, that we are that branded, trusted business on the high streets.

That is, again, quality years to life. Not, I mean, yeah, I wanna make money obviously, right? But actually this business is transforming on the high street today to make sure that we're still gonna be here in 150 years. And that's the big focus for us.

And I love this because you are not talking about figures here in that respect, you're A CFO that, and I think this is what really captured my imagination when I saw you on stage last year. You're a CFO that doesn't come at this from a facts, or a figures based first, your customer obsessed, and that's customer obsession all the way through the journey. From before they've got the product to when they're jumping into store or coming online, it's like you'll see, you see the bigger picture that a lot of people talk about, but actually you are living it and it really feels like you are hungry to really look at every little stage right across the business to know I suppose, where that investment is going.

Or should I say why you are having to invest as well. Yeah. I definitely don't fit the mold in that. And I've said in our business to all hands, I think I've written on LinkedIn, I really hate the phrase ROI.

Yeah, good. But I've even said to, I've even said to some of our, some of our investors was asking me, oh, I wanna see an ROI on something. And I went, I'm the wrong CFO if you're asking for an ROI, that actually it's about what it is it's doing for the business. So when, when someone says, what's this tech going to return?

I'm like no, no. The tech enables increased frequency. The tech enables better personalization, which then basically means I have longer, happier cohorts, which then ultimately means my LTV to cash is better, obviously. But ultimately, if I don't have people coming to my store, I don't have a business, right?

And I can make up a number that make people feel happy about that, but I don't need that number to know that I'm allocating capital the right way. It's fascinating. In Rohlik my previous company, I actually had this huge, I wouldn't say huge falling out. It was a very interesting debate at the board, right, with my chief operating officer, really great guy and, so in the UK and Acado, we were obsessed by making sure the driver who delivered the groceries to your house was our own driver.

A customer service team member. So that way then they were trained to a certain level because that's the only touch point of the brand. And at Rohlik our chief operating officer was Ex- Amazon so he really was like actually as, and obviously European delivery service partners have a different standard in mainland Europe to see what you might get in the UK and Ireland. Mm-hmm.

And so one of the things that we had a big debate about was he wanted to move us to a bigger delivery service partner model, which meant that the drivers would not be our drivers, right? Now, I was like, I disagree. And he said to me, but it's better for the PnL, and I was like, I don't care if it's better for the PnL. I want to know the person who, they're, they, they work for us.

I train them. They're the only touchpoint with the brand, right? And I was like, I literally don't care. Like, I was like, I understand this is your experience.

But I went, I don't like I wanna do the right thing for the customer. And actually what we ended up doing was I ended up actually going and following one of the drivers, our own driver, and then a delivery service partner for a day just to watch the interactions. 'Cause that was a really important data point for me. And the second thing we did was we actually looked at customer feedback over the last three months to go versus our own driver versus a delivery service partner.

Was there any difference from customer feedback if they were happy or unhappy? And what we actually found was in mainland Europe, it was actually the same. Wow. So I was like, I was like, wouldn't be the same in the UK, but nevermind.

But in mainland, 'cause it was different. I went okay, cool. This data point helps me, so it helps my PnL but like I had this big push where I went I do not want to have someone who does not know my brand, kinda not throwing my groceries. It's that kind of, because groceries are very different and they're very emotional.

Very emotional to, to humans. So yeah, I mean, you have to transcend PnL to go what's right for the business because if it's right for the business, it will pay back in the right time. I'm constantly hearing loyalty, longevity, this idea of sustainable business. We're pushing into the future here all the time, which I love.

You've mentioned Rohlik there, so look, I'm gonna bring it up because I vividly remember at the retail technology show last year, you obviously mentioned, and at the time you were CFO for Rohlik, you were interim chief people officer, and I know you alluded to it a bit earlier, these are two mega ends of a completely different scale here. What was that like? It was fun. Okay, moving on.

Next question. No, it was, it was great. It really challenged me actually. I think, if I just step back just from a, a process perspective, what I would say is that finance and HR are very similar, right?

So you have business partners, you have centers of excellence whether it's tax or rewards and benchmarking of employees or employer relations. And then you have shared services, which is processing your invoice or processing contracts to joiners and leavers. So when you think about process, they're very similar. But it isn't as measurable, the productivity of a people function, right?

'Cause with finance, it can be, you're like, how many business cases? What are you doing, et cetera, right? That coupled by the fact that if we were in five countries, five different cultures, languages, we're an English speaking company. It was actually really rewarding actually because what I found quite rewarding about it was you could choose what to do to make an impact to your employee?

So one thing that we actually did was we implemented a, a new talent acquisition tool, right? So how do we make sure we're bringing the right talent? But actually when you think about the customer, we actually took a lens in HR when I was looking at it about how do we look at our employees as customers, because actually the customer interaction doesn't, with an employee, doesn't start when they join. It starts when a recruiter calls them, right?

So that entire onboarding process and funnel is the beginning of your funnel. It's really interesting, right? And when you look at it that way, you go, would you wait three days to give somebody interview feedback? Would you wait three days to give a customer feedback?

No. You called them, you'd have stats for it. So why don't we treat our employees the same way? Because the problem we were trying to understand was how do we make sure we get talent and we retain talent?

'cause it costs a lot of money to replace talent, right? You have inefficient time, you have people onboarding, so they take time to learn. You have the non-financial impact of the morale and the motivation impact of the teams around them. So we actually took quite a measured and disciplined approach on literally a process to go, how do we treat our employees like customers?

Which is something that I was part of, which was really rewarding. What we did was we made sure that when people joined, they had two full days of onboarding. That was once a month. They came to our warehouse, they came to our head office.

A board member would attend for the first three hours. So I was that sacrificial lamb in that scenario. Basically describing the culture and the behaviors that was important for our culture because actually how can we expect people to work in our environment faster and efficiently and deliver for us if they don't understand what the expectation, but also and how that comes right from the top, right? So, we made sure, we invested a lot of time and actually on top of improving our onboarding rates and, our time to hire.

Actually our churn went down significantly just by doing that investment. It's the same thing, when you look at everything like a customer, it's very different. And I do this as well in Holland and Barrett. You know, in my finance function I kind of go, you know, the fascias of finance.

My remit is broader than finance, by the way in, in Holland and Barrett. But especially in finance, the fascias are, you know, you can come in through the business partner, you can come in through my invoices and paid, you can come in through my PO and stuff, you can come in through procurement. There's so many different ways, but how do we make sure that whoever interacts with us has the same customer experience and standard and service is actually really, really important. So I quite enjoyed people and the HR function.

I don't think I'd do it anytime soon. But because it's, it's two sides. It's one side is, this is great for people. I'm like, but it doesn't work for the PnL, right?

But then if you apply the customer lens and go, I wouldn't spare this expense from my customer in a store or online. Therefore, I should not do that for my employee. And that's how we approached it. And I love this.

I really do genuinely, and I'm really passionate about this because the way you are describing all of this, again, is the very nature of why the business, any of these businesses are in business. You are putting the customer first or that internal customer, and I think it's really refreshing to hear that as well, because that whole journey that we now look at for the customer that you've talked about so well today, we never do that for our employees. So yeah, learning times for you, but I'm really glad you've been able to share those insights.

'cause I think there's an awful lot of retailers listening that probably need to take a step back and do the same. It's not an easy process, I'm sure. But yeah, thank you for sharing that because it's a very different part of the business that I don't think anyone does because it's that need right now to either retain or to recruit. And it's hard, and I know it's hard.

But look, I suppose looking forwards then into 2026 and even beyond at that stage, what are you most excited or most curious about when it comes to the future of retail as a whole? That's a good question. I'm really excited about, again, I talked about the role of the store. So in Holland and Barrett, we actually launched our first, one of our new blueprint stores in Cardiff that's actually won a number of awards.

And it's not just, if you haven't been, you should go. It's not just a store that you're seeing at the very large rebrands on the high street right now. There's a community around it. We actually run, we run yoga classes.

So we actually have built a wider community, 'cause again, the role of what the high street is and why people go in is not only to consume, it's to connect, it's to go I'm really into wellness and I wanna talk about it. And, so I'm really excited about the journey that we're on has in Holland and Barrett about how we're going to look at our future estate and how that role of the high street, and our store, fits into that. I think that's something I'm really excited about. I think the other thing that I was excited about, especially in Holland and Barrett as well, is again, the use of our technology, we've just opened out our automated warehouse in January this year, January 2026.

And so that's really key because what that means is that I can turn my stock faster, but I can get it in the stores quicker, which means my shelves aren't empty. Or I'm not arguing about where my stock is or how much money I've spent in my inventory holdings. It means that when people order goods, they get it tomorrow. It means that I'm not, they're not ordering and then I'm saying, oh, by the way, it's outta stock.

I'm really sorry. I'm not disappointing the customer. Our last financial year we hit 981 million revenue, just shy of a billion. But of that, 20%, we had 20% growth year on year in our online channel.

My god. So we had 1.3 million new unique customers online. Which just shows how people are changing the way they shop.

And to clarify, we have an app and a web, but we actually we're also everywhere you should be. So we have a TikTok shop. It's not the most efficient way to do it, but you have to be where your customers are. You have to be.

And we are continuously doing that. So making sure that we have the right technology and the right fulfillment to make sure that we don't disappoint our customers on their journey of adding quality years to life is something I'm really excited about. And just bringing in new, different types of technology into this business. Wow.

It is incredible because it almost feels like you are living this perfect retail dream. And I say that with a lot of kind of positivity. It is not perfect. No, no, but look for the fact that you are minding your customer.

You've obviously, you are expanding this warehouse to meet the needs of the people that you are trying to, I suppose, bring on board as new customers and of course, service the existing ones. You're across all these different channels. From a customer perspective, you have made it so easy to shop with you 'cause your people are trained. I just think it's such an exciting time.

Yeah, it is. It really is. It's, um, it's funny 'cause I'm not, I'm not the healthiest person in the world. One, one of our, one of our values in our business is, is living wellness.

And I always say, I, I enjoy a burger at 11 o'clock at night. I really don't, look I'm like, I'm living my wellness. This is my wellness. But I think what's really rewarding about the business is the fact that, you know, I mean, look, I'm sure your parents are older as well, you can see that when you, when they take certain supplements, it takes a bit of the pain away or, it helps their joints or they sleep better, or their anxiety goes down or their hair stops falling.

All these types of things. Knowing you work for a business that genuinely, obviously you wanna make money, but genuinely makes an impact. And this is what I said, like my, my, my career and background is with mission led businesses, right? And I would say mission led businesses that use a lot of technology 'cause in my personal life I use a lot of technology.

I invest in a lot of technology businesses as well. But doing that in a retailer that's trying to do good for people is something to be quite proud of and we have some amazing colleagues that enable that for us. How exciting. So, Look, last question then, a really quick one.

What's coming up next for you and the team? Oh my God, so much. I dunno, I don't... Anything you can share, I suppose?

I guess what you'll see very soon, is that we're doing a very large brand relaunch. So we're gonna be on a lot of telly if you haven't seen it already. And we're gonna, because actually the one thing that everyone's noticing about Holland and Barrett is the stores look nicer and people wanna go in there, and younger people wanna go in there and we need to reintroduce the brands. And you're gonna see that really soon.

We're gonna be everywhere. And so if you see it or if you haven't seen it, you should check out on the stores. They're, they're great. Or the website.

How exciting, and I love that. I love the fact we're bringing the brand to almost a new generation or trying to spread it with the existing one out there. Fantastic times ahead. Very, very excited.

Well, look, if you've enjoyed today's episode, please do like and share it from any of the podcast platforms. Share that with your network, and of course, if you're on social media, so LinkedIn, Instagram, tag me, Melissa Moore and the Retail Tea Break podcast. You can of course, listen back to the previous nine seasons on your favorite podcast platform. While you're there, hit that follow button so that you get to listen first every week.

So, Vineta, where can people find you, by the way, if they're looking to connect or learn more, I suppose? Yeah, of course. You can connect me on my website VinetaBajaj.com or my LinkedIn.

I'm a Vineta Bajaj, I think there's one. So you'll find me on LinkedIn. We will. And do you know what?

I'll pop it in the show notes too, and obviously it'll pop all the details for Holland and Barrett in those show notes as well. It has been a pleasure. I know this has been a long time coming this podcast episode, but I've learned so much today. I have no doubt an awful lot of people listening and watching will as well.

Thank you for your time! Thanks for having me! Thank you again to SCAYLE for bringing us this episode of the Retail Tea Break podcast. SCAYLE empowers leading brands and retailers to build flexible, scalable e-commerce experiences that drive innovation and growth all through a platform designed to adapt as their businesses evolve.

So if you're looking to create better customer experiences and move faster in a competitive market, SCAYLE is a platform worth exploring. For more information, visit SCAYLE.com today.