Through determination and innovation, the Glenshire Group is steadily growing its retail footprint
Based in Fife, Scotland, the Glenshire Group (Glenshire) is a family-owned conglomerate established in 2020 to consolidate the existing businesses of Greens Retail (Greens), Skwishee, Glenshire Developments, and a number of Pizza Hut franchises. Spanning multiple sectors – retail, frozen drinks, and property development – Glenshire must carefully balance each business interest to ensure its overall success.
We sit down with Harris Aslam, Glenshire’s Managing Director, to get an expert insight into what it takes to manage a multi-brand business and how he is propelling the group to further growth, particularly in the retail sector.
“The origins of our business date back to 1982, but my entrepreneurial journey started more recently in 2014 when I came onboard to help launch our retail offering,” Harris begins. “Growing up within a family business means you’re constantly engaged with business dialogue from an early age, whether it be innovation, strategy, or financial terms. As a child, I always knew I would be involved with the business and had a genuine interest in the retail world.
“We’ve undergone significant expansion during the last ten years, and specifically, over the last three years, the business has doubled in size each year. We decided to amalgamate our operations in 2020 to bring our business interests of construction, property development, retail, and investment, under a single umbrella.
“In 2023, we expanded our Pizza Hut delivery franchise by acquiring 16 stores,” he reveals. “The synergies between our businesses allowed for seamless integration, and we’re proud to say that the existing 293 team members transferred to our employment. We look forward to bringing delicious pizza to the people of Scotland, and seeing how our customers interact with these locations.”
People, product, place and planet
Speaking of its retail offering specifically, Harris continues: “We were first known as Eros Retail but rebranded to Greens to strengthen its link with the overall business in preparation for rapid expansion. Today, we operate 20 stores across the country under our own fascia but in partnership with Nisa and a number of concessions like Costa Express, Fisher and Donaldson bakery, and our own brand of frozen fizzy drinks, Skwishee.
“Although we’ve launched numerous innovations over the last ten years, Skwishee is our most notable and has since grown to be stocked in over 200 locations throughout the UK. We identified a gap in the UK market for frozenated (frozen-fizzy) drinks, so we created a brand from scratch to offer unusual, yet delicious drinks that are also sugar-free, gluten-free, and vegan. Our flavors currently include Redberrylicious, Frozen Raspberry, Wild Cherry, and Mad Mango, with two new flavors coming soon. However, the latest Skwishee innovation is our mocktails, which are an alcohol-free rendition of three classics: margarita, pina colada, and passionfruit martini. To top it off, our edible straws in either strawberry, chocolate, lemon, or lime, create unique flavor combinations.”
A crucial aspect of Glenshire’s business is that its operations align with its four key values of people, product, place, and planet. “Firstly, it’s crucial to note that we couldn’t be successful without our employees,” Harris states. “We currently have a team of around 800 individuals, and every single one is pivotal to driving the business forward. In terms of the ‘places’ aspect, the more we grow, the more stores we can open, and the bigger impact we can have on the communities in which we operate by providing jobs and boosting local economies.
“Many elements of this business are based on what I would call a startup culture. We’re a proactive, streamlined business with initiatives that enable us to make quick, yet confident decisions without a lengthy approval process. There are seemingly trivial things that help our culture too, like an open-plan office and a Monday afternoon ‘huddle’ meeting with department managers.
“It’s important that our suppliers and the brands we work with also align with these values,” he adds. “We want to create destinations that leave a long-lasting, positive impression on our customers. So, while it’s important that we maximize pounds-per-square-footage when opening a new location, it’s crucial that the companies we work with have a similar strategic vision to ours.”
Multi-brand approach
One of Glenshire’s recent activities is creating convenient locations that house multiple brands. “The multi-brand concept provides an interesting opportunity for us to combine our different businesses under one roof,” Harris explains. “We stock our Skwishee frozen drinks in Greens stores across Scotland, for instance, and in several Nisa stores throughout the UK.
“Pizza Hut also provides a unique opportunity for cross-brand sales. We opened a Pizza Hut delivery and collection site alongside our Greens store in Kirkcaldy in September last year, which we predict will boost Greens’ sales as it will encourage customers to visit the neighboring stores when collecting their pizza. This is just one example of how the multiple synergies across the group can benefit one another, and although we only have one multi-brand location at the moment, there is definitely scope to expand.”
As our conversation draws to a close, Harris reflects on Glenshire’s ambitious goals and outlines how he plans to achieve them. “We already have more than 30 stores in the acquisition pipeline, and we’re planning lots of new store openings within the Pizza Hut franchise, as well as other brands too. As we grow, there’s an opportunity for us to increasingly adopt the roadside destination model of having multiple brands under one roof, so there’s lots of ongoing discussions and trials happening with brands.
“We remain focused on growth,” he concludes. “We’re a fairly young and growth hungry leadership team with ambitious goals. However, we must be careful not to grow for the sake of it, but instead keep an eye on our turnover and profitability to ensure we can sustain such expansion. We’ll also continue to innovate as we strive to grow our multi-brand approach.”