What is your greatest challenge and how do you deal with it?

Getting the store ready every morning for when our customers first arrive is probably the greatest challenge, along with providing great availability. It's all about working hard with the colleagues and having good standards. We have great standards in this store and we really know what our customers want, which is a great help.

What makes the store such a success?

We're still a fairly new store - we only opened just over a year ago and I think we still have very high standards deriving from that. We're quite a close-knit group. That says a lot about the colleagues and it is also what makes the store work. There's a real team atmosphere here.

What do you do in your spare time?

I am the father of two young children so most of my time is spent with them. I'm also a big fan of Manchester United and once every two weeks I travel to Manchester with two colleagues from other Asda stores to watch Manchester United play.

What is the best thing about being a duty manager?

The overall responsibility of the store is great and also the variety of the work you do. You can be in the clothing section one minute, then in the office the next minute. I love the variety of the job and it's what keeps me going. I have been working for Asda for 21 years after seeing a job advert in the Jobcentre window. My mum said I should go for it and 21 years later here I am as a duty manager. I have worked at 13 different Asda stores.

What are your plans for the store?

We are renewing the clothing area at the end of March, and we hope this will help us to continue the success of the store. We are changing all the fixtures and fittings and the area will have to be closed for about five or six days because it's such a big project. We want our customers to face the minimum of disruption but we feel the renewal will be really worthwhile for them.

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