Reece Jones

My role as a Retail Events Analyst, within the Fresh Supply Chain Team, is to:

• Support stores with refrigeration breakdown and applying appropriate measures to manage the situation and ensuring the quickest possible recovery for customer satisfaction & availability.
• Manage key seasonal and student stores, and maintaining a high level of service by closely working with store management and other supply teams to maximise store sales and availability.
• Minimise waste whilst maintaining sales/CSAT scores during events.
• Identify opportunities to streamline processes to reduce labour requirements/spend and assign clear accountabilities and responsibility to the appropriate stakeholders.
• Use forecasting tools and software, utilising machine learning, to manage sales impact and proactively manage events.
• Support stores with sales impact due to competitor openings/closings, roadworks or other adversity/challenges.

As a Buyer at Asda, I was tasked with looking after a heavily operational category, In Store Bakery, which is a 'hero' area for the business. My key achievements include improving store compliance of feature space and adherence to process guides by directly and indirectly coaching store colleagues through a variety of channels (including store visits and frequent contact with the entire store estate), halving wastage by streamlining the product range and improving store efficiency whilst improving sales and profitability, and introducing a new range of seasonal products that brought incremental sales of £1m+ to the category and boosted market share. My main responsibilities whilst in the role included:

• Managing a range of own label, branded and scratch products, to provide a compelling customer offer that delivers against sales targets and differentiates from competitors.
• Monitoring sales performance and end to end profitability.
• Ensuring the customer was at the heart of decision making when looking at all decisions such as product ranging, pricing, promotional activity and product quality.
• Liaising with stores and coaching store colleagues, to ensure adherence to in store processes and drive simplification and efficiency improvements.
• Building promotional plans and managing pricing to ensure the range delivers on value metrics and is competitive within the market.
• Liaising with the technical and quality teams to ensure products handled in store are compliant with food labelling/allergen legislation and rectify quality concerns.
• Managing relationships with suppliers to allow for collaborative working in line with JBPs and drive growth for both parties.
• Working with commercial teams, such as modular planning and POS, to allow for strong in store and online execution, in adherence to critical paths.
• Analysing customer and market data to monitor trends and gain an insight to areas of improvement and opportunity.

During my time as a CTM I was based in a student stores and a town centre store, playing a key part of the store's management structure. Key achievements included covering for the store manager during holiday, early in into the role, and ensuring we continued to trade safe and legal and outperforming against budget, improving CSAT scores by coaching colleagues on areas for improvement and bringing to life actions and next steps, and improving process compliance across all areas of the store using a methodical approach, close attention to detail and supporting colleagues to consistently complete tasks correctly and efficiently. My main day-to-day responsibilities as a CTM included:

• Duty managing the store in absence of the store manager, whilst providing exceptional customer service and being a visible leader across the store.
• Delivering high standards across the shop floor to allow customers to have a pleasant experience in store and ultimately achieve/exceed our sales and CSAT target.
• Action planning against areas of opportunity in our CSAT scores and coaching these to colleagues.
• Managing colleague’s performance and setting expectations so that tasks are completed efficiently, on time and to a high standard, whilst prioritising serving customers.
• Ensuring that the store is trading in a legal and compliant manner at all times in line with key legislation such as Alcohol Licensing, HFSS and Employment legislation, in addition to Sainsbury’s own policies and procedures.
• Prioritising tasks swiftly and effectively when faced with adversity such as sickness, IT issues, delivery lateness etc..
• Escalating and communicating issues in a timely manner to the appropriate stakeholders to minimise impact to the customer and business.
• Motivating and coaching colleagues to provide exceptional customer service and to go above and beyond for customers.
• Carry out ER tasks including sickness and performance management.
• Managing the activity and stock within the warehouse to ensure that it is handled correctly and within procedure.
• Receiving deliveries safely and taking in stock efficiently, so that it can be worked and put out on the shop floor quickly and safely within procedure.
• Ensuring customer and colleague safety by working with Mitie and their security guards, as well as following procedures to prevent anti-social behaviour and theft.
• Managing general and food hygiene across the store to allow for a safe working and trading environment for colleagues and customers.
• Completing all daily and weekly processes including cash and change handling, consumable ordering, signing off timecards and payroll, managing reductions and disposals effectively to minimise waste, managing inventory to reduce shrinkage, changing ticketing for price and promotional changes, to remain legal and compliant.
• Reporting facilities and hardware issues and working with contractors to minimise trading and customer impact.
• Completing regular checks and audits throughout the store such as fire alarm/fire exit testing and cleanliness checks, and arranging any follow up actions accordingly.

• Working in head office as part of the ambient trading team, I was responsible for the trading of Free From Bakery, as Junior Buyer, with key responsibilities similar to those detailed above during my Buyer role at Asda. Prior to this role I was a Buying Assistant for Spirits, supporting with key administrative tasks in support of the Buyer's objectives and responsibilities. My key achievements in this role were landing a suite of market leading promotions during peak trading period during my infancy in the role, reducing supplier queries by implementing better communication and touch points with stakeholders, and reducing wastage across Free From by working closely with internal/external supply colleagues.

I was a key member of the management team for a 100 driver strong transport operation, for a high street retailer, during my time as a Transport First Line Manager. Key achievements include implementing a new time keeping/payroll system to the operation whilst keeping disruption to colleague pay to an absolute minimum, reinforcing daily routines for managers particularly around daily audit/health and safety checks which in turn improved colleague ability/understanding and our metrics, and improving on time delivery performance by improving awareness of how this is measured to colleagues and closely analysing failures/correctly mitigating third party impacts to protect our service level results. Some of my key responsibilities included:

• Managing the operation whilst on shift and deputising for the Transport Managers, to ensure the operation was achieving KPIs and running safely and legally, with Health and Safety and the customer always at the forefront.
• Supporting the compliance manager with ensuring vehicle maintenance was carried out in a timely manner and that colleagues were operating within the Working Time Directive.
• Prioritising tasks for myself and other management colleagues throughout the day, depending on workload and challenges that arise throughout the day, to ensure we maintained strong performance against KPIs and reacted swiftly to any adversity such as weather, traffic, breakdowns etc..
• Conducting HR activities such as role shortlisting/interviewing, contract creation, conducting investigations, carrying out investigation meetings and note taking.
• Reporting on key KPIs to the customer and internal teams, action planning accordingly and coaching actions to the wider management team and drivers.
• Liaising with a number of internal and external stakeholders at a variety of levels of seniority.
• Coaching drivers directly on performance/opportunities and indirectly through other management colleagues (for any night shift drivers etc.) to constantly review improvement opportunities against key KPIs.
• Escalating issues to ensure they were contained and corrected appropriately.