Meet Grenville Snowdon - mentor for Le Marché

From left: Grenville Snowdon and Marcus Rowlerson

Meet Grenville Snowdon - the man who helped to launch Le Marché and a mentor and friend to the business. Grenville now lives in Australia but spent decades working on the Market and founded our sister company The French Garden. We caught up with him during a recent trip to London to hear his story ….

When did you first start working on the Market?

My dad worked at TJ Poupart [on old firm in the original Covent Garden Market]. I joined him when I was 16 - just helping out in the school holidays. A couple of years later, he bought into another business. I left school and started working for him the day after I passed my driving test in 1970. I started driving and delivering to restaurants around London. Then I started on my own business with another guy when I was 21. I have never worked for anybody else since then.

What was the atmosphere like in the old Covent Garden Market?

Time makes you think everything is more rosy than it was, of course. But it was full of characters. Everybody knew everybody. There were more thugs than there are here [in the relocated Market in Vauxhall] but they were nice thugs - nice thieves.

How did you first meet Marcus?

I've known Marcus for a long, long time. [Since the 1980’s]. I knew the guy he used to work for [John Connell] from back in the old Market. John’s mum and my dad knew each other. My dad used to buy watercress off her so we go back a long way back.

What was Marcus like back then?

He's always been a great guy. John Connell was his mentor and knocked the spots off Marcus. Back in 2013 I was driving into the Market and saw Marcus pushing a heavy barrow in the pouring rain. I wound down the window and enquired how he was. Marcus said: “How do you think?” So I asked him if he wanted to come and work for me.

We went through a lot of different  scenarios before we came up with Le Marché. I said there is a niche market for the very best. The French Garden can supply you with all the top quality produce and give you an an intro into Rungis Market in France. Now we've evolved and metamorphised into this very efficient business, which I’ve got a lot of time for. But it's reflected glory. I haven’t anything to do with pushing it along. I gave Marcus the direction but Marcus has taken it by the scuff of the neck.

What makes Le Marché unique?

Everybody else always says ‘Yes’. They never say ‘No’. They always take on too much. Or they say that they can do things that they can't. And I said to Marcus - don't over promise and under deliver. And as you get a good customer you knock a bad one off the bottom because you can't have a great portfolio to start off with. And so he just improved it and improved it. He has got better and better until he became the the wizard he is now. Yes - he's a wizard.

Can we go back to your early days and you first businesses? What lessons did you learn ?

The guy I started my first business with was a bit of a rogue. He was the one that knocked all the spots off me. I didn't come from a street traders background - I went to school. But I wasn't privileged. We had no money but I was brought up quite well, straight and narrow. Being thrown into a den of thieves really does wake you up very quickly.

We supplied a lot of restaurants in Chelsea. But in the end I just had enough of - how shall we say - the abhorrent ways of the underworld. It was a bit too strong and I just got out at any cost.

Then I bought a shop and ran it for a couple of years. Next I opened up a proper company called Chef Supplies and started supplying restaurants and hotels - that was 1987. I sold that and we started up The French Garden. I was running the two together and I was just running ragged.

Tell me about the early days of The French Garden.

When we started it up we were only doing two trucks a week - one on a Wednesday and one on a Friday - and we were selling out. The truck was virtually sold before we before we got it back. So it was a very lucrative time. We were one of the first people doing wild mushrooms, baby vegetables, produce that was weird and wonderful - according to the culinary arts of the UK at the time, Anything that wasn't shepherd's pie or something was haute cuisine.

Was it hard to get a foothold in Rungis Market?

My French was school-boy French. But I did have the benefit of my dad's ex partner. He was Lebanese and spoke French so he bedded it all in at first with us. Then we had a French buyer who I subsequently had to sack and I had to work in Rungis for a while. I drove out on a Sunday night and came back on a Friday night. I remember something really funny: I got stopped at customs and they said “Anything to declare?” I said “No”. They said “What? No cigarettes? No beer?” They emptied out the car. Took the spare wheel out. So after that I bought a bottle of Scotch and some cigarettes and they came backwards and forwards with me on every trip for four months.

Any other memories of those early days?

We grew quite quickly - got better, more professional. Before we started The French Garden, I took my HGV Class One. One time I was just sitting down with some friends for Sunday lunch. There as a bottle of wine out. I was just about to sit down. The phone went and the driver had been stopped. His license had run out. They actually put him in cell. So I took my car down to Dover, hitched a lift to the truck, which was half way back. Brought it over here, unloaded it, sold it all, got in the truck, drove back to Paris, filled it up again. I got back Wednesday morning after Sunday ….

You have been very successful in your career. What are your key skills?

There's only one thing that I've been good at - team building. I wasn't a good buyer. I wasn't a good seller. But once you got the thing working I realised that you can actually be nice and successful. I set the bar so low that everybody I employed was always better than me. People sometimes mistake being nice for being soft. But somebody once gave me the greatest compliment. He said: “I think you're a wolf in sheep's clothing”. And I said: “That's the nicest thing anyone has said to me.”

What about working nights? When did you sleep?

Well, I've only ever worked at night. When we first started up The French Garden, I used to go to bed three times a day. Everybody you speak to who has their own company in this business is sleep deprived. I've always had this ability of working nights in the week then on the weekend I just sleep like normal and switch around. I've been married for 52 years and obviously have got a very understanding wife. I sleep like a baby now, I really do.

How is life in Australia?

Life in Australia is based outdoors. I'm an outdoor sort of person. My dad emigrated there around 1988 and we went out to see him. I suffered from bronchitis. One year I had it three or four times. I said to my wife we have got to try and get out here because of the weather and the climate - it just makes it more easy to live. I'm quite sporty: mountain biking; kayaking; sailing and golfing. I don't play golf anymore. I am the Commodore of our local yacht club but I don’t sail.