Shrewsbury, England, United Kingdom
I worked with Hilco on the Homebase project to assist the store management teams across the UK in the successful wind down of the business whilst at the same time ensuring maximum profitability and sell through of all stock, maintaining store standards as best as possible in line with administration guidelines and guiding the store teams through the difficult process while ensuring the best possible customer service to the stores and the public.
I led the central retail operations team who support all the processes relating to the Blakemore Trade Partners (BTP) and Blakemore Retail field teams. I was chosen for the role due to my retail experience, internal systems knowledge, in-depth understanding of the business and respected status within the field team. We handled the administration support for the sales team, new business team, development and commercial teams for both independent and company owned SPAR stores. It was a complicated role that touched all parts of the business from logistics, trading, marketing, finance & accounts, charity partners, events management and even training. When I joined the team, I identified that the team were siloed in their workloads and capabilities which posed a potential risk. I saw this as an opportunity for the team’s development and growth which they leapt at. This future proofed the department and when departmental mergers took place it was much easier to support the incoming team. This collaborative working also identified opportunities for efficiencies in processes; one process in particular was labour intensive, errors were being made due to late and incorrect data being given – so a deep dive was done, and the task reduced from taking about 40 hours every three weeks to 3 hours with no errors. This then allowed all CRM files to be updated, legacy folders to be harmonised and information be easily accessible for customer service and the field teams 24/7. A large part of my role was being Project Manager of the organising committee for AFB’s annual tradeshow SRS. We had a self-funding budget of £1.2m for the business to hire all of the International Centre at Telford for the one-day event which saw a tradeshow of 220 suppliers spanning two halls, a conference of 1,500-day delegates and 850 evening guests for a gala dinner.
I was responsible for over 30 independent retailers across North Wales, AFB’s largest and most profitable independent territory. Working with strong independent successful retailers was a great start for my B2B career, I was able to share my varied retail background and knowledge while being welcomed into and learning so much about their businesses. Some retailers were nervous about sharing information, but this took time, a lot of hard work and trust. I helped retailers interpret sales data to improve their businesses, to invest in refits and overall store environment, staff training and development, promotional activation, and community engagement. Pwllheli needed a refit, and working with the retailer over a couple of years; the design, layout, look & feel was settled upon and post refit the business (and team) were nominated for Convenience Retailer 2020 of the year which they won! Being a trusted advisor really came into its own when the pandemic hit, as I was effectively an integrated member of the store teams, I knew how the stores ran and the teams knew how I operated so I could easily slot into store operations where required. Knowing how the stores were operating throughout this time, and how they had engaged within the communities the team at Tremadog had gone above and beyond so I worked behind the scenes to nominate them for a Queen’s New Year’s Honour’s award. They were rewarded with an invitation to a garden party at The Palace which they loved.
I Joined the business as a Christmas temp, progressed to Commercial Manager in January 2013, and left the business as Relief Store Manager of Northampton which had £17m annual takings, with 150 members of staff, after delivering the new concept refit over a period of four weeks. The Northampton store had a great training centre located within the building, allowing me to become involved in the planning and running of assessment centres for section management development and graduate recruitment. I Covered the Stevenage hybrid outlet store as Relief Manager in the run up to Christmas, Guiding the two teams on key departments that could be capitalised on, re-laid these areas to make them easier to shop. I worked with the team especially daily team briefs on which products to demonstrate and upsell – resulting in the store beating plan and delivering strong YOY growth while I was there. I re-joined the business to help support the food hall in Milton Keynes flagship store over the busy Christmas period, taking in excess of £1m in the week up to Christmas eve. In February 2015 I was proudly appointed as Manager of the busy Princes Risborough store, a successful Simply Food store taking in excess of £9m PA but with significant opportunities for growth on General Merchandise through the dot com side of the business. Staff engagement was key at the store – they were a great team, superbly integrated in the community and that energy just needed unlocking. I encouraged them to support the local care home with surplus food, take part in community events, and we raised over £1,000 in one weekend for the store’s local charity.
I had been made redundant from Rontec (TUPE Transfer from Total UK) where I was a Category Manager looking after food service, chilled, tobacco, and newspapers & magazine categories for in excess of 200 direct managed sites and another 200 dealer operated sites. Previous to this role, I had been an area manager for fifteen direct managed SPAR branded forecourts, with full P&L responsibility. In the July, I had been asked to return to the field for three months to assist with the transfer of stores to Shell and other retailers due to my experience. This role finished at the end of the September.
I headed up the hot food to-go category, which encompassed chilled food as well. When I started the role, my first objective was to reduce waste and improve profitability. I achieved this by using my knowledge from being field-based and analysing EPoS data. The proposed range changes were discussed with the field management teams initially then timescales set and locked down, promotions improved and menus were communicated to store teams with suggested plans by day-part to capitalise on trends. Sales increased by 5% and net margin increased by 25% in three months. In collaboration with the supplier, we sourced new improved packaging solutions for food service, delivering net benefit of £45K per year. As part of the category’s transformation, I conducted a competitive sales tender for factory made sandwiches which when rolled up was worth £6m over five years. As the business migrated to Rontec, the team shrank and I picked up the tobacco category along with some smaller categories.