25_27_Food For Thought.qxp_Grid 11/12/2019 14:28 Page 25
Food for thought
Season to be We all know that the final days in the run-up to Christmas can see stress levels soar. PH asked Retailer Employee of the Year finalists for their tips on how to stay cool, calm and collected during the hectic festive sales period, as well as asking about their priorities for 2020.
Asking the retail superstars PH put these two questions to the winner and finalists of the Excellence in Housewares Awards’ Retailer Employee of the Year 2019:
What is your best advice for coping with the busy festive sales period?
What's going to be important for your business in 2020?
Left: Star studded – a Christmas window at Kitchen Range, West Wickham. Below: Lucy at The Kitchen Range. Right: Eamonn was presented with the Retail Employee of the Year award by Tramontina’s UK marketing consultant Mhairi Coull.
Teamwork, music and pointers Lucy Richards, manager of The Kitchen Range, West Wickham FESTIVE ADVICE?
supermarket of sorts. We are also in the midst of planning to build a kitchen to help with our growing demand for cookery classes and supper clubs. We are always aiming to diversify and make use of the shop after hours.”
“Stay prepared and commit to early starts and late nights. We have more staff on the rota up to Christmas and open on Sundays for the month of December. We buy a temporary licence and play festive music to keep everyone in good spirits. We stock up heavily on boxed items, easy pick up lines and new ceramics. We also have lots more points of display around the shop: offers such as 'Secret Santa £10 gifts', and memory joggers, such as: 'Have you got your turkey baster?'”
Be prepared and keep learning Retail Employee of the Year winner, Eamonn Ferry, home improvements business manager at Leekes (who joined Leekes in 1987) FESTIVE ADVICE? “My best advice would be to be prepared and well organised. We keep a ‘lessons learnt’ document each year and identify where we could have done things better. We then follow this up each year by setting up a critical path of important dates for stock to be delivered by as well as a cut off date after which no more seasonal orders can be placed. Overstocking our stores can as much of a danger as under-stocking if we replenish seasonal sales too late in the season! Communication of all of these dates and key lines with our store teams is vital.”
2020? “2020 is the year of ‘eco’ for us. Of course, we have gradually stocked more lines in accordance with our eco movement in 2019, but we aim to look in to a zero-waste PROGRESSIVE
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HOUSEWARES