Tag: retail jobs

Aislinn Lea, Head of Fashion & Non-Food, Excel Recruitment

How to do a great SWOT analysis

Posted on | by Aisling Rafferty

A SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis is a common and important part of job interviews for retail management but often interviewees can struggle with where to start or what to say. Our Head of Fashion and Non- Food Retail Aislinn Lea tells us everything we need to know..

A strong SWOT is a fantastic way of showcasing your experience and skills, along with your commercial awareness and can put you miles ahead of the other candidates. We’ve broken down each section of the SWOT and (provided handy templates) in detail here, but this blog will take you through how to approach you SWOT, what to look out for and what to avoid.

Where do I start?

Preparation is key with a SWOT. Your consultant will be able to tell you what the interviewer will be expecting- how to present it, the depth of analysis required and what store (if there’s more than one) you should conduct your analysis in. It may be a good idea to visit the store two or three times during different trading times to get a full picture of the store’s commercial day. Look at both the store and the surrounding area and visit other stores in the area, to see the differences. Make detailed notes about what you see/ don’t see and if possible, take pictures.

What am I looking for?

Break your SWOT down into the four sections and deal with each separately. For the Strengths section, break it down into store strengths and company strength and then again by customer service, visual merchandising and overall store standards. Deal with the weaknesses section in the same way. This ensures you don’t miss anything and show the interviewer you notice details while being a well-rounded manager.

The opportunities and threats section of your SWOT will come directly from your observations on both the store’s weaknesses and the surrounding area. Split this into short-term, medium-term and long-term objectives with clear, actionable suggestions on how to address/ capitalise on them. The most important thing is to keep store-specific and makes reference to the location, customer profile, local market and nearby competitors that affect the individual store directly.

How do I present it?

This will depend on the company you’re interviewing with, some will want an elaborate and engaging Powerpoint while others will simply want you to have a few notes that you then talk through verbally. Either way, use bullet points rather than chunks of text and elaborate on them at the interview. Have an action plan to hand, discussing how you would tackle what you’ve highlighted in your SWOT and a timeline.

What should I not do?

Don’t be too generic in your analysis and ensure the points you are making are specific to the store and the role you’re interviewing for. Your SWOT analysis should be conducted with the individual store’s location, demographics, resources etc. at the forefront of your mind.

Another thing I often see is people try so hard to not be overly-critical that they end up leaving out key issues. While it’s important not to be too harsh about the business or the brand, if there is an issue the interviewer is aware of but you don’t discuss, they’ll presume you missed it in your observations.

Want a Career as a Merchandise Planner?

Posted on | by Aisling Rafferty

Thinking about a Career as a Merchandise Planner? Excel’s Retail Head Office Consultant Sarah Hurley takes you through everything you need to know…

Merchandise Planning is a relatively new function within Irish buying offices but is just as exciting, fast-paced and rewarding a career as Retail Buying. Merchandise Planners are high in demand. They have a unique skillset and niche expertise and are rewarded with competitive salaries and benefits, a broad career path and numerous choices and plentiful job opportunities with the biggest retailers.

What is a Merchandise Planner?

Merchandise Planners operate a crucial function within a retail Head Office. They work side by side with Buyers to plan, execute and deliver ranges.

What do they do?

People often explain merchandise planning as getting the right merchandise, in the right place, at the right time, in the right quantities at the right price to maximise sales and to minimise markdown. With the buyer, they will look at past performance and future trends, to predict what items will sell best and plan accordingly.

Right Merchandise – Styles, brands, colours, sizes

Right Place – Which store, depending on their budget and location

Right Time – Having merchandise in stores at the right time in the season i.e. ready for Christmas or ‘Back to School’

Right Quantities – Enough for the stores to make their budgets but not have to markdown stock at the end of the season

The Right Price £££– Those that will attract customers in over the competition yet generate a reasonable return on investment for the retailer i.e. profit

What do you need?

Merchandise Planners are in demand because they have a unique blend of skills-

Analytical skills – enjoy analysing data and using this to identify trends and potential risks and opportunities

Communication skills – Must be able to communicate this data and trends to people and build great relationships with suppliers and in-store teams.

Quick thinking– Retail is incredibly fast-paced and merchandise planners need to be quick thinking to spot trends, evaluate large amounts of data and make sound decisions. Things can change very quickly and there are always deadlines to meet.

Commercial Awareness – you need to understand what is going on in the marketplace, your competitors and be able to spot gaps and opportunities

How do you get started?

Most Merchandise Planners come from either a fashion buying & merchandising course or a business/finance related degree and have a mix of both retail and office based experience. Graduates will start their careers as an Allocator or Assistant Merchandiser and work their way up. Opportunities exist within the fashion and non-fashion retail and open up a broad and varied career path.

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Q1 retail sales show full effects of the ‘Beast from the East’

Posted on | by Aisling Rafferty

New research into retail sales in the first part the year have revealed the full extent of the disruption caused by March’s ‘Beast from the East’ on the retail industry.

The latest figures from the retail representative group, Retail Excellence Ireland (REI), show that despite the improving economy, like-for-like sales were down 1.2 per cent in March, and a fifth of 1 per cent overall in the first quarter compared to the year previous. This decline comes despite the improving economy and a comparative boost to first-quarter sales by Easter falling in March, compared to April in 1017.

REI’s chief executive, David Fitzsimons, said the bad weather negatively impacted most on the 19 retail sectors examined in its first-quarter Productivity Review, which it produces in association with research firm GfK and Grant Thornton. It collates electronic sales data directly from the tills of retailers. “What is very clear is that the Irish retail industry is in a significant state of flux,” he said.

In terms of specific sectors, garden centres performed the worst, with sales down 15.8% in the first three months of the year when compared to 2017- for obvious weather-related reasons. IT and computing products saw a 17 per cent decline but were saved from a further fall by the early Easter period. IT sales, including computers and tablets, have dropped off hugely. In volume terms they were down 11% and 17 per cent in value terms Jewellery sales were down for all three months in the quarter, as were lingerie, ladieswear and menswear sales.

Among the best performing sectors were health stores (up 4%), small home appliances (up 6%) and furniture and flooring (up 3.6 % over the quarter). Grocery sales were up 1.1% which was “spurred on by Easter trading”, said Mr Fitzsimons. The rate of monthly growth in the sector actually increased in March, which may well have been partly due to bread sales.

Supermacs to create 200 jobs with 3 new restaurants

Posted on | by Aisling Rafferty

Irish fast food chain Supermacs is set to open three new outlets in Cork, creating 200 new jobs.

The popular fast food brand, run by Pat McDonagh, will open a new franchise outlet at Ballyvolane within three weeks and will include a Supermacs, a Papa John’s Pizza, and a drive-thru. Another franchise outlet will open at the Amber filling station on the N71 Bandon Road, near the Bandon Road roundabout, in approximately six weeks, while the Supermacs group will operate the new Tivoli outlet, which is due to open within three months. The new units are part of a nationwide six-outlet expansion of the Supermacs group. By June, the brand will have 13 the number of outlets in Cork city and county, and to 114 the number of outlets nationwide.

“We have had an outlet on the North Main St for several years and had been looking at opportunities in the city for some time but the business has changed over the 10 years or so,” said Mr McDonagh. “There has been a fall-off in pubs and nightclubs, so we looked at the city outskirts for ease of access and drive-thrus. We are also examining potential opportunities in the West Cork region over the next year or two. “We have career opportunities at all levels and we are looking for managers, store managers, assistant managers and catering assistants. We have a structured career path in place for staff which leads to store manager positions as well as site and area managers. We want people that will stay with us and develop with us. “To date, over 150 new promoted managers were awarded QQI Level 5 certificates in Management which they achieved through work-based training in their own outlets.”He said employers face new challenges in recruiting staff, most of whom were born in the late 1990s, but he insisted the salary is competitive, starting at the minimum wage and rising incrementally. And he said between 60% and 70% of their franchisees come from within the group.

Mr McDonagh, a former teacher who was nicknamed Supermac on the GAA field, opened his first fast-food outlet in Ballinasloe, Co Galway, almost 40 years ago. Today, his empire, which is worth a reported €110m, employs more than 2,700 people nationwide.

Retailers deal with aftermath of Storm Emma

Posted on | by Aisling Rafferty

As the thaw continues, retailers around the country are counting the cost of the last week’s weather disruption where heavy snowfall and the Red Weather Alerts saw many forced to close their doors from Wednesday. Some businesses have still not re-opened in the aftermath of the severe weather.

Lorraine Higgins, deputy chief executive of Retail Excellence Ireland, said different sectors experienced varying degrees of disruption. “The focus on grocery purchases meant that purchases in other sectors were postponed. Huge losses were incurred as a consequence of being closed for five days. It’s the loss of sales, employee costs and general clean-up costs that they are facing now,” she explained. Ms Higgins said retailers are now trying to encourage footfall back into their stores after several days of closures and some quiet days over the weekend. “Retailers who had an e-commerce capacity were advertising online quite heavily. It’s been a difficult time for many sectors so I’d be encouraging people to go out and support retailers with a physical store presence and divert some of the spend from businesses overseas to retailers here.”

According to Miss Higgins, the big winners from spending in the online sphere are overseas retailers that do not have a physical presence here, with an estimated two-thirds of spending online by Irish consumers leaving the country. “Many discerning retailers with an online capacity here had sales of 15-20% to encourage people to spend online over the past few days. But that comes at the expense of heavy advertising,” she said. “What this points to is the need for retailers to have ‘omnichannel strategies.’ They’re becoming increasingly important in light of the frequency of recent weather events,” Lorraine Higgins concluded.

The heavy snow presented numerous challenges for grocery stores, which saw huge demand for fresh food in supermarkets over the weekend. Retail group BWG Foods has revealed a Brennan’s Sliced Pan was the number one item in demand over the last few days, followed by litres of milk, 6 packs of eggs, firelighters and wine.

Dunnes still on top as shoppers spend on brands and veggie options

Posted on | by Aisling Rafferty

 

The battle of the supermarkets remains as tight as ever as all major supermarkets experiencing sales growth over the last twelve weeks. Only 1% separates the top three, with Dunnes in the top spot with 23.2% of the market.

According to Kantar Worldpanel, Dunnes have successfully counteracted lower footfall with higher spending from its existing customers. This comes as shoppers are shopping around less but rather remaining loyal to a brand and spending more in one place. Dunnes are followed by Tesco on 22.7% and a sales increase of 4.8% and SuperValu is in third with 22.2%, with sales growth of 2.1%. Dublin yielded the strongest results for the retailer, with the supermarket managing to increase its market share in a region where it was traditionally underrepresented. Lidl and Aldi are on 10.5% and 10.3%, respectively, and Iceland, while also holds just 0.6% of the market is making gains in their frozen offering, helped in the main by new store openings. The chain which recently opened its 20th Irish branch increased its share of frozen food sales from 4.3% to 6.0% year on year.

According to the latest figures, which deal with the 12 weeks ending 28 January show continued growth for Irish supermarkets, with the growth of branded goods outpacing own brand labels for the first time in four years. Alcohol, baked goods, frozen food and toiletries were the best performers. Kantar Worldpanel’s David Berry saying the sales equated to nearly €50 million extra for retailers. “The recovery of branded sales began in late 2017 and has continued apace in the new year. Sales of brands are up 4% year on year as shoppers parted with an additional €49 million on their favourites during the past 12 weeks.

Consumers’ New Year health kicks were plain to see with spinach, berries and avocados continuing to prove popular. Shoppers’ are also showing an increasing interest in vegetarian and vegan lifestyles with sales of vegetarian options surge by 18%, translating as one in five shoppers picking up a vegetarian product.

Centra to open 30 new stores as part of €30m investment

Posted on | by Aisling Rafferty

Musgraves are planning a €30m investment into their Centra convenience retail brand, with plans to open 30 new stores. The retailer also plans to revamp a further 100 existing stores. The investment is expected to create 400 jobs.

The new stores will include eight greenfield sites while the remainder will be made up of retailers looking to take on the Centra brand, according to a spokeswoman for the brand.All of the new stores will be opened by the end of this year. The newly branded Centra stores will be spread across the country. Roughly 50 percent of the new jobs created will be as a result from the opening of greenfield sites.

The Centra brand was repositioned in 2016 as part of the “continued shift by consumers for healthier options”.In the past 12 months sales of the company’s “Grab & Go” sandwich range rose by 24 percent, impulse water purchases increased by 10 percent while salad box sales reached almost €2 million.The Frank and Honest Coffee brand, performed very strongly for the retailer, contributing to sales in the hot beverages category doubling in 2017. The coffee offering is currently available in 350 Centra stores and will be available in all the new stores.

“We are very happy with our performance in 2017 in what is an extremely competitive market. Our decision to reposition Centra in response to changing consumer trends, with customers increasingly choosing healthy options, has paid dividends,” said Martin Kelleher, Centra managing director. “We are well-positioned for the future with plans to open a further 30 Centra stores in 2018, highlighting the attractiveness of the Centra brand to independent retailers,” he added.

The retailer employs over 11,000 people in Ireland and has 450 stores.

Decatholn open Irish stores

Sports retail giant Decathlon to open nine stores in Ireland

Posted on | by Aisling Rafferty

French sports retail giant Decathlon are set to make their mark in the Irish market with plans for nine stores across Ireland.
The family-owned company, often called the ‘Ikea of sports retailing’ are expected to open their first store in Dublin, followed by Cork and Galway, along with more in Dublin and around the country.

The planned stores will employ more than 500 people. Sportswear lovers may already be fans of some of the 62 brands stocked by the retailer including Kipsta, Tribord, Artengo amd Quechua. . Decathlon will distinguish itself from other sports retailers such as Lifestyle and Sportsdirect by offering only its own brand products for sale in Ireland.

Ireland is one of the few European countries where the retailer does not have a high street presence. Decathlon considered branching out into Ireland several years ago, but backed away quite suddenly just before the country’s financial crisis broke. The brand recently set up its first Irish office in Sandyford and last October, established a dedicated Irish e-commerce website delivering directly to Ireland. It aims to ship 100,000 items here this year to some 50,000 users.

According to Decathlon Ireland CEO Bastien Grandgeorge, who moved to Dublin last August from Singapore, where he led Decathlon’s launch, the company is close to negotiating a deal for a 2,000-5,000sq m store on the outskirts of Dublin. While space in Dundrum Town Centre was suggested as a possible first Irish home, the company was looking for a much larger space. Mr Grandgeorge said a medium-term goal for the company is to develop its own brand for Gaelic sports.

Decathlon has 1,350 stores across more than 40 countries and a multi-billion euro annual turnover. Decathlon designs and manufactures the products itself, which, says the company, allows it to pass all the savings on to the consumer.

Retailers want online market places to pay VAT and duties

Posted on | by Aisling Rafferty

The retail representative group, Retail Excellence Ireland, have called for legislation to make online market-places liable to collect VAT and duties.

The group say the proposed measure will help to counteract the level of retail spend leaving the country. Retail Excellence Ireland is calling for legislation similar to the UK’s Finance Act which was introduced in December. Under the Act, online market-places were made responsible for collecting VAT and duties.

“We think that we should expect no less here in Ireland, because it’s not enough in budgets to just increase consumer spend and think that takes care of retail,” said Lorraine Higgins, Deputy Chief Executive of Retail Excellence Ireland, “We need retail-focused solutions for the future.”

Ms Higgins, Deputy Chief Executive at Retail Excellence Ireland, said two-thirds of online spend is leaving Ireland, and retailers here are aggrieved by competition from online retailers based outside the state who do not have to pay duties. “First and foremost we need to look at the online market-places, and the fact that they don’t have any duty on them,” she said. “So what we’d like to see is robust legislation introduced in the upcoming budget that would make online marketplaces jointly and separately liable to collect VAT and duties.”

She said retailers “were investing heavily in marketing campaigns to try and offset the type of cheap imports that were coming from websites, predominantly outside of the EU” She said the industry is seeing is an elongation of the shopping period at Christmas time, and a lot of retailers have stepped up to the mark and offered bargains, deductions and discounts in November, in order to try and encourage people into stores, to offset the challenges coming from websites outside of Ireland.

Discount retailer Dealz to add fashion outlets to 30 Irish stores

Posted on | by Aisling Rafferty

Popular discount chain Dealz has announced its plans to open 30 fashion outlets.

The retailer will roll out it’s sister brand ‘Pep & Co’ in 30 of its existing Irish stores next month. The Pep & Co stores within a store will create 120 jobs while also bringing the retailer, popular for their food and household items, to a new customer base. The first ten outlets will be launched on February 23rd and located within the brand’s flagship store in Blanchardstown, along with stores in Dundrum, Kilkenny, Naas, Newbridge and Castlebar.

A further 20 stores will open nearer to this summer, at locations including Killarney, Galway, Letterkenny and Cork. Pep&Co stores are expected to take up “20 to 25 percent” of the floor space of the Dealz outlets within which they are co-located. Much of the retail space required to accommodate the new discount clothing stores will be “liberated” by knocking through walls into storerooms, according to the company. There are no plans to open stand-alone Pep&Co stores here

Pep&Co will stock a full range of men’s, women’s and children’s discount clothing and prices will begin at €1.50 with an offering that includes jeans for €6.50 and €3.50 T-shirts. In addition to the cut-price jeans and T-shirts, it will also stock, men’s sweaters for €7.50, while some items in its range for young children are priced at between €1 and €2 among others.

Dealz operates in the UK as Poundland and the announcement comes in conjunction with plans to expand the Pep &Co across Ireland, the UK and France. More than 150 Pep&Co stores will open in the next 12 months in these locations.