Dipak Karia was managing the Dhamecha depot at Croydon when he was offered the job of taking charge of the opening of its newest depot at Watford, and he says it was too good an opportunity to miss.
Even within Dhamecha, which prides itself on giving its depot managers a wide degree of autonomy, Karia has been able to stamp more of his personality on the depot than most.
He had a hand in recruiting his team, and as all but two had no previous C&C experience, he has been able to train them to his and Dhamecha's way of working. "Training was very important," he says. "We took them on early so we could ensure they understood C&Cs."
For their training, many of the new team did shifts at other Dhamecha depots to get a feel for the business.
Karia has a particular insight into retailer needs as he worked in retail for 20 years before moving into cash and carry with Dhamecha at Croydon.
Before the opening of the Watford depot in June, he augmented that experience with visits to potential customers to see their businesses and assess developments in the trade. Early trading saw a fair number of symbol group retailers visiting in addition to the CTNs, c-stores and forecourt operations that would be expected.
With an 80,000 sq ft depot and 55 staff to manage at a seven-days-a-week operation, it might be thought that Karia would be up to his neck in paperwork, but he says that isn't the Dhamecha way. As much of the administration function as possible is handled by head office at Wembley to free general managers from its requirements. He says: "This is a great job. I'm a people person and I'm able to put in as much time as possible working with my team and dealing with customers."

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