General Manager

Dobbies Garden Centres Ltd; Greater London; On-site; GBP 45,000 - 65,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual leave

Staff discounts

Stream access

Retail Trust support

Dobbies Academy

Vibrant culture

Job summary

Dobbies Garden Centres Ltd is seeking a General Manager to lead store performance, drive customer experience and achieve commercial targets across our stores. You will own day-to-day operations, manage budgets and costs, and build a high-performing team focused on growth and service.

You will coach, inspire and develop colleagues, collaborate with central teams on stock and compliance, and uphold our values of teamwork, customer focus and garden passion across every shift.

Qualifications

• Retail management expertise with proven experience leading multiple direct reports
• Commercial awareness with budgets and profitability focus
• Ability to identify training needs and coach staff
• Excellent communication and ability to share initiatives across the business
• Adaptability to changing priorities and workload
• Positive change management to lead teams through seasons
• Demonstrates company values: one team, smiles, gardens, customer focus

Responsibilities

• Own store management to hit commercial targets and manage budgets
• Oversee business operations to maximise profitable sales
• Create a great workplace and develop the team with a development journey
• Inspire passion for great customer experience and journey
• Coach staff to improve service levels
• Collaborate with central support teams on stock and communication
• Ensure health and safety compliance and welfare

Skills

Retail management

Budget & profitability

Coaching

Communication

Adaptability

Change management

Team culture

Job description

Our General Managers play an essential role in delivering customer experience across our stores - driving sales, promoting customer loyalty, maintaining high operational standards and smashing commercial targets.

Responsibilities

• Take full ownership of the store management, ensuring everything is in place to hit commercial targets with responsive management of budgets and cost controls
• Overseeing the complete business operation, maximising profitable sales and growth while creating a unique customer focussed environment
• Taking the lead in creating a great place to work for everyone on a day-to-day basis whilst thinking ahead to ensure your team have a development journey with Dobbies
• Sparking your team's passion for delivering the best customer experience possible by creating a brilliant customer journey
• Observing your team's service levels, identifying ways they can improve and finding the best way to suit that individual in coaching them to improve
• Working closely with our central support teams, maintaining excellent communication, stock supply and response
• Ensuring all compliance with health & safety regulations, whilst caring for employee and customer welfare at all times

Who we are looking for

• Retail management expertise with proven experience of leading multiple direct reports and their teams
• Commercial awareness and understanding of budgets, profitability from driving retail sales and improved ways of working
• Ability to identify training needs. You'll be effectively coaching and training all levels ensuring teams are delivering a first-class customer experience
• Excellent communication skills. You'll ensure that successful initiatives and actions are shared across the business and that performance is monitored
• Adaptability. You'll act quickly and enthusiastically to changing priority, workload and concepts
• Positivity managing change. You'll lead the team through each season with care and motivation to deliver best
• Can demonstrate our values at all times - we're one team, getting better everyday. We bring a smile. We live and breathe gardens. We make it work for our customers

What we offer

• Generous annual leave entitlement. Use your holidays when you want with limited statutory days off required
• Treat yourself with generous uncapped discount across our stores with 50% off in our restaurants, 25% off in the Garden Centre and 10% off in our food halls
• Access to Stream - support your financial wellbeing, with ability to access earnings ahead of pay day, save for the future and financial advice
• Access to Retail Trust - seek confidential support, access to a virtual GP, free counselling servoce and discounted retail rewards with our employee wellbeing platform
• Access to Dobbies Academy - continue your development with our eLearning platform and development programmes
• Thriving culture; the Dobbies team are passionate, diverse and committed to making it work for our customers

About us

At Dobbies, we’re proud to have a history dating back to 1865. We were founded by James Dobbie and are the only garden centre retailer to have stores in every nation across the UK.

Our passion and joy for gardens and plants is what makes us special. In our stores, we showcase this through own brand and branded products,concession partners and services. We champion garden living all-year-round.

Many of our stores feature a restaurant or coffee shop, where customers can enjoy refreshments or meals in a relaxed and welcoming environment.

We offer a calendar of events and experiences that bring people and communities together, and we have a national charity partner that both our colleagues and customers raise money for.

We’re committed to being a great place to work. We’re one team and we encourage our colleagues to be the best version of themselves, every day; to share their wins and celebrate success. Together, we make it work for our customers.