Ten Trainee Managers gathered on Thursday 14th April 2011 at the Training Suite above Callington store to present the projects they had prepared as part of their 18 month training programme.

Directors and Area Managers were there to witness some very well thought out ideas and thoughts on saving money and time and also increasing sales.

Topics included:

An Intranet attached to the Company Website in order that Store Managers and Supervisors could access all the various forms, planograms, contacts etc directly.

A Managers Manual to help Trainee Managers and Supervisors to have a store specific manual when they had to cover Managers absence. What were the top 100 sellers in that store? Were there specific products that the store sold lots of? Staff contacts etc.

Improve availability and increase sales by regular use of Connect2U, using top 100 sellers and identifying poor and best sellers.

Paypoint Training aid to assist employees with all the various transactions available through Paypoint.

Reducing Carbon Footprint in the Company, switching off computers, water heaters, looking at feasibility of energy saving lighting.

Security- apprehending shoplifters, what to look out for, what details to be taken in order that leads can be followed up.

Information Poster instore giving delivery awareness for staff in order to give the correct information to customers. Would lead to improved Customer Service.

Improving end of week procedure with less paperwork sent in saving time in processing. Save costs with postage.

Comment Box for customers to enable them to relay to the Company what they want in store.

Improving sales and availability on Food to Go by ensuring that popular fillings are used.

All the Trainees had worked incredibly hard on their project and had to apply lots of factors from the six modules they had attended during the first part of the training programme.

Training continues for the group and all will be waiting in anticipation of passing the “Management Principles” Certificate which they have been working towards awarded by the ILM for the last 6 months.

Well done to Charlie Taylor at Wadebridge; Calum Fairnie, currently managing Laira in Plymouth for Maternity cover; Kieran Wright at Heathfield; Jake Moore at Bugle; Alex Nowell at Chagford; Sarah Squibb at Upton; Jamie Maslen at Budleigh; Mark Scott managing Torpoint; Sally Hall at Blandford and Kirk Hall currently managing  Pinhoe for Maternity cover.

All the Directors and Area Managers were very impressed with the content and quality of all the projects and Mark Gillett expressed thanks to them on behalf of all present.