Concession Manager

A day in the life is a new segment brought to you by the RETAIL skills academy to give you an insiders view of the diverse and exciting careers within the retail sector.

Our first day in the life looks into the role of a concession manager within a leading high street department store.

Name:  

Mathew Stephenson (23)

Occupation:

I am the Concession Manager for the Fossil Watch Concession in House of Fraser which is a department store in Norwich.  I oversee a team of three staff.  I am also a Cluster Manager for six other Fossil concessions, including its flagship store in Manchester.  A Cluster Manager oversess a small number of stores or concessions (3-4) on behalf of the Area Manager.  I am accountable to the Area Manager.

How did you reach this role?

I started my career in retail as a Sales Assistant in the Men’s Suite Department after leaving school. I then became a Sales Assistant for the Fossil concession.  After nine months I progressed to Concession Manager.  Now, two and a half years later, I have become a Cluster Manager as well.

Qualifications:

I have retail qualifications.  I feel that undertaking work based training gave me a better understanding of the retail landscape and gave me the skills to overcome any difficulties I found on the shop floor or within my team.

Qualifications gained:

Customer Service         NVQ Levels 2 and 3
Management                 NVQ Level 3
Retail Management       NVQ Level 3

What are your key duties?

For the Norwich store, managing the sales team, driving sales and meeting targets, ensuring the concession is profitable, recruitment and staff training, stock control, payroll and visual merchandising.

For the Cluster, overseeing the Managers of all six concessions, driving sales and targets and ensuring the concessions run efficiently and become profitable.

A usual working day within the Norwich store consists of:

8.45am: I begin by preparing the sales floor, opening tills and then I attend the Department morning meeting to gain feedback on the previous day’s sales and note any important events coming up that may affect sales and staff scheduling.

9am:As the store opens I move on to stock checks, a weekly cycle of stock counting must take place, each day a different watch brand is counted and the information is then input on the computer system for our records.

10am: If I receive a delivery then I must carefully unpack the delivery, check it against the delivery paperwork and then check off the items on the computer system so that the warehouse knows all the stock has successfully been received.

11am-3pm: These are the peak trading hours.  During this time the focus is serving and assisting customers. It is important to spend time with the customer, building a picture of what they want so they leave satisfied with their purchase.

4pm:  As the flow of customers lessens, this is the perfect time to carry out any visual merchandising changes.  As new watch designs come in and others sell out the displays must be altered to accommodate the change.

5pm: I begin the end of day closing down procedures, this involves preparing the concession for the next day, checking stock replenishment, tidying displays and cleaning. I will also look at the daily and weekly sales to see how much needs to be taken the following day in order to hit target

6pm: Close the tills and turn off all equipment, then it's time to go home!

What do you love about your job?

Although part of a larger chain, I am expected to treat the concession like my own business so I have a lot of control over the team and how the concession is run. The progression to Cluster Manager has opened up my schedule so I get to travel, meet other teams and work in other types of stores.

Greatest Achievement:

That was leading the Norwich concession into profit a year ahead of forecasted plans.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

I would like to be an Area Manager who is on track to becoming a Divisional or Departmental Head with Fossil.