Phil on Nick I've worked at United Co-operatives since 1991, starting as a general assistant before progressing to store manager and then area manager. In our current roles, I've worked with Nick for the past seven months - I took him on to run Alsager's problem store. We had operational problems and we would get a lot of complaints from customers. I left him alone for the first two months and then we sat down together to formulate an action plan, which included building a team, drafting new rotas and organising a recruitment day. The turnaround has been a big success - turnover in-store has increased from an average of £70k a week to an average of £110k a week and we are getting positive feedback from customers. Nick is a real grafter and a great people person. He's successfully built a great team at Alsager. He also does a lot of work to position the store in the local community through the local Chamber of Commerce and a school. Nick has a lot of retail experience and is a very focused manager - if you give him something to do, by hook or by crook he will get it done. He is always on the go. He's like a whirlwind and never stops. Nick on Phil The Alsager store has had a partial refit since I have been store manager. We have added extra tills because the store was getting busier and people were having to queue for longer at the checkouts. We have added new trolleys, carried out general repairs around the store and generally given it a good tidy up. We also held a recruitment day at a local hotel to hire 14 staff. We now have a great team here and I've worked with the staff to give them extra responsibilities and allowed them to work on different tasks. When Phil visits the store he will say hello to all the staff and will have a laugh and a joke with both staff and customers. He's also a very fair person who always gives credit where credit is due. I have only one complaint, really. He has a habit of volunteering me to do things before asking me. He volunteered me to attend a one-off IT meeting, which turned into a regular monthly working group.

Topics