PERSONALITY PROFILE
65
“The walkout
of senior
management
from
Plumblink
after their
two-year
restraint-of-
trade had
expired, was
McFarlane’s
second
big career
challenge.”
Seaweed McFarlane is justifiably proud of his rugby past, and is still well remembered in Italy.
Gary Chandler: “I knew nothing about plumbing as yet,
but I looked at the layout of the store where everything
was behind a counter or even in the warehouse, which
had to be requested by name – by plumbers who
often only knew what their required product looked
like. From my viewpoint, how could anyone shop like
that? The new model has everything on display, with
retail assistants to help – and it works much faster.
“We made a few mistakes on the way, such as putting
in tills which didn’t go down well with the plumber
who likes to buy on credit. They were initially called
‘Express’ stores to differentiate them from the big
warehouses we had at the time,” but as all the large-
format stores have now been phased out, Plumblink
doesn’t use the ‘Express’ moniker anymore.
McFarlane notes that an interesting dynamic of the
plumbing industry is how much important networking
takes place over a beer. Something which might be
frowned upon in other industries is vital to plumbing:
“There’s a bond and camaraderie in this industry
which spills over from the workplace.”
Just as union problems were the biggest challenge at
Rainbow, at Plumblink it is having to dismiss staff for
checking out goods without paperwork, which is fraud,
by staff members trying to ‘help’ a customer. “We’re
getting on top of it, but it hurts,” he says.
January 2020 Volume 25 I Number 11
The future
McFarlane says one of the principles he picked up
from Lakhnati is that one should only stay in a position
for a certain number of years, and he believes he’s
already been in his current job too long. “One of my
reasons for leaving is to enable new ideas to come
to the fore. Having been here for 13 years puts a
dampener on things, and I find myself getting in
disagreements with people wanting to change things
because I am maybe set in my ways.”
He isn’t ‘retiring’ in the traditional sense and relishes
new opportunities, although has no definite plans
other than to spend some months seeing the world.
With his dedication to Plumblink over the past years he
wouldn’t consider anything in the plumbing business,
he says.
The name ‘Seaweed’ is a hangover from his long-
haired student days, where everyone had long hair
including himself, but his was particularly straggly
and unkempt – and literally looked like a bunch
of seaweed stuck to his head. And whereas most
people lose their adolescent nicknames, his stuck.
“When I was having my first business cards printed, I
wrote down Peter McFarlane and they came back as
Seaweed McFarlane, and it has been that way ever
since.” PA
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