The Works: New Stores & Refit Activity
Summary
Bluestones One’s merchandising division is proud to have supported The Works across the New Store & Refit programme to deliver merchandising activity on time and on budget. We have worked closely with The Works senior team to ensure that our teams understand the unique ways of working associated with such a retailer and are continuing to invest in order to support the delivery of this activity.
Challenges
The Works had trialled competitors previously and wanted to ensure that we grasped the unique nature of their business, the standards expected and the volume of growth they deliver every year. We also applied our own knowledge and best practices to ensure that we were the supplier that went beyond those initial trial stores.
We had to ensure our teams were carefully selected and trained before we delivered our first store. We then had to ensure we took all of the appropriate steps in order to develop our teams for the challenges that lie ahead with this fast-paced retailer.
Results
Our merchandising division has continued to be awarded further stores. Whilst we recognise that we are only as good as our last project, we believe that the foundations are in place for a long-standing and successful working relationship with The Works.
Bluestones have supplied and supported Halfords with Merchandising personnel since 2017 on various projects ranging from refurbishments, relocations and range reviews. Most recently they have helped us deliver the biggest project we have ever undertaken, a space and range project across the whole estate.
Their team leaders and merchandisers that work with us, are professional, well trained with a great skill set and deliver a first-class end product.
Their management team work closely with us to ensure they always understand our requirements. They supply us with core teams to give us consistent levels of service and are a good fit in line with our development programme. This programme can be very fluid and Bluestones are very flexible and can react very quickly to any change in line with this.
Our experience working with Bluestones has been a positive one. From the planning stage through to the first week of the project implementation, I have found everyone from Bluestones easy to work with and very professional. The team have delivered on everything they said during the planning stage, suggested ways to overcome potential issues and provided regular updates on progress to date. Having spoken to each of the stores where work has been completed, feedback is consistently good. Professional, safe and customer friendly are regular remarks received from store colleagues. My experience to date gives me confidence in Bluestones and their ability to continue delivering against the high benchmark they have set.
Bluestones One Merchandising has supported several of my projects over many years, these have included new store openings, refits and range change reviews.
New Stores are delivered over 9 days with £1.5m worth of stock merchandised and priced with 99% availability. Refits are over an 8.5 week period in which Bluestones will supply a high level of merchandising on both days and nights. The level of customer service given to valued customers within my business during refits is excellent.
The support from the management team during all projects is first class, always available and willing to help. They also give the teams continued training to grow and develop the skill set of the workforce.
I would be happy to recommend Bluestones to any business wanting to use them within the retail environment.
What I enjoy about working for Bluestones One is the travel and the ability to work in different environments and locations throughout the UK and Ireland. There are different challenges week in, week out and lots of opportunities to meet new people. There are also great progression opportunities – I joined the merchandising division as a Team Leader and now I’m a Senior Team Leader.
