Alexander Thomas

Address: 9 Balmoral CloseMilnrowRochdaleOL16 3EL

Mobile Telephone Number: 07791339357

E-mail: alexthomas999@hotmail.com

Drivers License: Full UK License

SKILLS AND ABILITIES

I am cheerful, hard working and intelligent individual who will find the positive in all situations, a real people person who is eager to excel in all fields and strives to do better.More than capable as working as an individual or heading up/working as a team.Love to work with people on all levels and aim to be a strong figure of leadership to those i work with.Am able to keep a calm head and focus in times of pace and urgency.

EDUCATION AND QUALIFICATIONS The Blue Coat School: 10 GCSE’s

The Blue Coat Sixth Form:3 A-levels

EMPLOYMENT

April 2005 – September 2008Sales Advisor Level 1 – Sales Advisor Level 3

Formalwear specialist for River Island. Initially a part time member of staff in the Oldham branch due to college commitments before becoming full time in 2006. Was promoted to formal wear specialist in October 2006 and left to start at the Trafford centre branch at a higher level in April 2007. The job entails:

Personal one on one customer service providing advice on fits fashions and product care

To have personal knowledge of store and company best sellers and maximise use of this knowledge to boost sales

Manage the formalwear team and make sure all staff have knowledge and skills to serve customers to company standards

Frequently review figures to keep dated on personal performance in relation to company performance and other stores within the area

Be able to relay information on my department to senior members of staff including store manager, regional manager and company directors.

September 2008 – October 2008

Concession's Manager for Lloyd’s footwear. This job entitled the entire running of the department from within the store and although customer service was a large focus a larger aspect of the job was to,

Maintain a high level of communication between the store and the area manager

To ensure that wage costs were kept to a company expectation by adapting the rota’s from week to week seeing areas of risk and areas of opportunity

To maintain that a full stock package was available at all times by keeping in constant contact with head office relating any queries and requests to our representative

To take charge of the pay roll for all of my staff by making sure all hours were logged and that the paperwork was set off on time

October 2008 – October 2012

Sales and Service Manager (River Island –Trafford Centre) – I rejoined River Island after six weeks with Lloyds due to the fact that the pace was so much quicker than it was for Lloyds. This role entitles:

Training and development of all team members of the sales and service team, to ensure all customers receive a high level of service and perform to the mystery shop standards

Drive conversion and ATV (average transaction value) at all points of the day through leading by example and coaching the team.

Recruiting the team to fill the base matrix ensuring the correct types of staff are hired and that all initial employee set up and Health & Safety training was carried out.

Ensure that sufficient staffing is available weekly and daily to ensure that cover is available throughout the store in all areas.

Covered Pay roll to ensure all staffing hours were put through correctly and pay queries dealt with quickly and efficiently, while setting up all new starters and taking leavers off the system.

During my time I also covered as a Men’s Product manager which included looking after the commerciality of the floor by ensuring all best sellers were in the correct position and all sizes were out, new lines were placed onto the shop floor in to the correct trend area. This also included launching numerous sales and floor layouts.

October 2012 – September 2014

Operations Manager (River Island-Trafford Centre) – I was re located into operations to cover vacancies over the Christmas period and have since stayed due to being capable within the role, which includes:

Processing daily deliveries in line with productivity targets by ensuring that staff cover is correct and time scales are set and adhered to

All price events are launched on time and identified both in store and the offsite stockroom, including mid season and end of season sales.

Replenishment is pulled in line with time scales and any errors are investigated and dealt with as appropriate

All on and off site stockrooms are maintained to a high standard at all times Launching investigatory and disciplinary action against staff members consistently failing

to meet company expectations. Conducting weekly fire and first aid checks to make sure we are abiding by current

health and safety legislation.

Conducting daily and weekly Profit protection tasks to ensure our stockloss is kept under the company expectation

Managing the sales team, this involves ensuring they are performing to company expectation every day, setting daily tasks and objectives and ensuring they are achieved, conducting their one to one reviews every three months and doing regular observations on their productivity.

September 2014 – Present Assistant Manager/Acting Store Manager (OPEN – Leeds Trinity) – I started with OPEN for a new challenge in a new position, and the possibility to establish myself within a new upcoming company

Ensuring Company targets were met and daily / weekly targets were met and rolled out to the rest of the team. Consistently measure performance against KPI’s.

General team management, from recruitment, training, rota’s, to disciplinary procedures.

Compliance of all company Loss Control procedures, and ensure all Team has company understanding and adheres to these at all times.

Layout, implement all layout, windows and trend hut updates within company guidelines, plan in to weekly scheme and grow these trends as more new lines and stock package comes through.

Launch all promotional and Sale events across the store, also work on the stores own press promotions from in store events, to other press avenues.

Ensure service levels were always being met in line with personal expectations which was to keep conversion above 15% this was set by myself and not put in place by the company.

Crisis Management, upon starting at OPEN there have been multiple issues which i have had to overcome to keep the store open and going, these consist of no management structure in place, we have only had a store manager for a month and a half before he was sacked for P&C reasons, junior managers had no previous retail experience at the required level and finally all staff had been recruited with full availability but could only work weekends. Though this was a challenge its one I’ve relished and welcomed the opportunity to tackle.

REFERENCES

On request.