I worked a second part time job within Llangollen and this is an antiques emporium.I thoroughly enjoyed this as i began learning all about the items i was selling. The owner then went to China for 2 months and left me with total control of it all. This included displaying, pricing and of course working 4 days per week along side EWM.

The role within EWM, included all aspects of retail work. From customer service to deliveries and stock rotation.I was very quickly made a key holder and soon ran the Sunday working hours of the store. This meant putting together weekly reports, setting up the following weeks targets with ideas of how to better the week before.With previous experience of window displays and working with decals in Clintons, I quickly became the window dresser too.Working within a Welsh town had its challenges and I quickly had to learn a few Welsh words for the tourists. I am not in anyway a fluent speaker but can say the basics to get by.

I started the role as a floating manager and worked within their Stafford, Birmingham Bull Ring, Chester and Crewe stores before having a base store within the Wolverhampton store. This is one of the top 50 stores for the company.I trained to become a cluster manager for 5 stores within the Midlands area however i also covered stores as far as Keighley and back to Stone Staffordshire.The job itself included everything from hiring and training new and current staff, card organisation/ordering, season changes i.e. Christmas-Valentines-Mothers Day-Easter-Fathers Day-Sale-Back to School-Halloween-Christmas and all over again.Within the stores i worked all standards increased which in turn led to higher takings and more base line profit.Moving cards on such a fast pace is heavy work behind the scenes which most people take for granted, but without organising the stock within a card shop, you may miss that sale of any card from the 50p ones up to the £8 ones. Each one is as important.

Overseeing both Sandwich and Olsen

* Joining the team in a new position to help develop the structure needed within a retail business, supporting its own charity. * Overseeing the company’s 3 main stores with a total turnover of £150k + per week, including management of 7 managers within these stores and over 50 staff. (Up to 30 staff per days trading over the 3 stores) * All HR issues, including screening of CV’s, interviewing, hiring, firing, disciplinary action, reviews, inductions and all security matters for both staff and customers. This along with supporting and delivering changes to company procedures. * Helping to create a full new training pack for all levels of staff and management, along with rolling it out to the new starters I have hired. * Liaising daily with the retail director and CEO’s regarding issues in my 3 stores. Whether negative or positive matters. * Supporting the Rota coordinator with staff and manager cover logs, sickness cover, holiday issues and general Rota issues, ensuring all stores have cover when needed. * Supporting the visual team with stock rotation, displays and standards within the stores.* Stepping up to cover the retail director with her holiday, but also stepping down into a duty manager role when we have sickness within the management team. * Liaising with the warehouse team to ensure all stores have the correct stock delivered on time and to the correct stores, but also discussing levels of stock and how quickly it can be processed for retailing. * Liaising with all departments to ensure smoother running of stores. E.G, facilities and building manager regarding all safety issues, IT department regarding all issues for computers, iPhones, landlines, connections and Barclays regarding all PDQ machines. * Working towards KPI’s including a 10% growth in LFL sales and a reduction of 50% in our customer complaints, in the short time I have been there.

• Joining as a concession manager and working my up to a senior manager within 2 years.• Running my own concession but also overseeing up to 27 others, including all John Lewis stores in the south along with 7 HoF concessions too, working closely with the different store managers, womenswear teams and also the delivery people and visual merchandisers in each store to enable our product is displayed and looked after to the company high standards.• Managing the 7 Hof managers and setting up the buddy system for 20 John Lewis stores. This included all training needed, putting together the job role for the buddy but also training of the John Lewis team with our product. From the inspirational story behind Mint Velvet’s beginnings culture and aspirations, to our latest product, including materials used where they came from and inspirations behind the product.• Being part of the ‘set up team’ for new stores including Milton Keynes John Lewis which now one of the biggest and most successful concessions outside of London and the flagship store in Marlow. Alongside this, interviewing the staff necessary and on the job training during set up.• Becoming a store trainer for new managers joining the company making sure they are confident and competent going into their own store, but also having follow up sessions too.• My role included a 6 week secondment to solely move the customer service department from the warehouse in Milton Keynes across to our Head Office in High Wycombe, training the new customer care manager on the computer systems used and introducing her to the teams both at the warehouse and head office, including directors, buyers, merchandisers, allocators and of course the IT team. • Organizing notes and investigations for disciplinary action. Working with all people involved.• Stock loss planning and action plans for my stores and improving the stores where necessary and achieving a 0.1% stock loss in my own store which could be accounted for.

• I joined HoF to launch the brand Dickens & Jones once it became a house brand for the company. • Raising profile of store and brand within local region, working with the shopping mall and other local businesses to achieve this.• We ranked very quickly within the top 20 out of 52 with only larger stores in and on the outskirts of London ahead of us.• Working with KPI’s ATV, UPT and productivity.• Merchandising product to guidelines but also adapting to the store and the customers.• In constant contact with buying office to alter the store profile when needing more of one product and less of another to protect the profit margins.• Help train the new team on the information given to us and reasons behind product placement etc

• Driving the business to achieve +10% growth within my 1st year with the company and increasing the contribution by 5% too.• Working my way up to become the area co-ordinate for the Jaeger standard training course ensuring all teams were signed off and meeting their own development training plans. My own team included.• Taking part in fashion shows in and outside of the store to ensure full impact of new product is seen.• As a store we were achieving a loyalty base of 85% shopping on a regular basis• Calling customers about new stock being able to know what they like and what suits them