Director of Retail Operations, Jones Bootmaker

When taking on this interim role, it was just four weeks before Christmas. Sales were disappointing and the business had excess terminal stock to clear. It was vital to drive sales and make way for the new season stock to be purchased. There were two regional manager vacancies, a retail operations vacancy and a retail conference scheduled for mid-January, but not yet planned.

We worked with the buying, merchandising and marketing teams to maximise sales by implementing effective promotions and marketing. Sales on entering the business were -30% LFL and the performance on leaving was transformed to a positive 18% LFL – a 48% improvement in 12 weeks.

Whilst recruiting for a permanent retail operations coordinator, we utilised our network and brought in one of our own team. They were very quickly able to set up effective communications across all stores and the whole business, helping to motivate staff during a difficult, unsettled period. The subsequent retail conference proved to be a huge success and was dubbed ‘the best ever’.

Additional roles and activities included launching incentives, KPI setting for the regional team, as well as creating a new role to drive ‘the Trial Store Project’, finalising budgets for 2017 and embedding best practice methodologies.

Amanda’s retail experience really helped to get the quality and product right – making people want to buy the products. She is quite demanding and was not afraid to challenge the buying teams and marketing teams where necessary.

David Riddiford ex-chairman of Jones Bootmaker & Brantano

Amanda’s support made me go the extra mile, to come out of my comfort zone and I grew in confidence and believed in myself.

Franca Mills temporary regional manager of Jones Bootmaker