Deputy General Manager in South West London

Our Story

From its inception in 1994, Chrissie Ruckers vision was to build a company that specialised in stylish, white, designer-quality items for the home that were not only exceptional quality, but also outstanding value for money. In addition to this devotion to simplicity, it was imperative the customer was put at the heart of everything and provided with a second-to-none shopping experience - and so The White Company was born. Today, the company that began as a 12-page mail-order brochure has become one of the UKs fast-growing multi-channel retailers and a leading lifestyle brand with 66 stores across the UK & Ireland and a highly successful online business.

Our Equality Diversity and Inclusion statement of commitment

At the White company we are committed to creating an inclusive culture that welcomes and celebrates a diversity of backgrounds and identities. We are working together to ensure our environment is one where people can bring their authentic selves to work, where their contribution is valued, ability enhanced, and perspective appreciated. Where difference is respected, encouraged, and celebrated. We are committed to an active Equality Diversity and Inclusion Policy, which starts with our recruitment and selection process. We’d love you to join us on our journey.

Our Role

The White Company is seeking an experienced Deputy General Manager to join our Number 1 Flagship store in the business, located in Symons Sloan Street. As the Deputy General Manager of the £10m+ business, you will be responsible for leading your managers and store team through the day-to-day Retail focuses focusing on commercial & operational excellence, customer & store experience, and creating the best place to work. Strong communication skills across all mediums are essential. In addition, the ability to organise, prioritise multiple and varied workstreams will be required to be successful in this role. You will work closely with your General Manager on developing and implementing a robust strategy for your store that supports the strategic priorities of both The White Company and Value Retail.

What you’ll be doing

• Driving Performance:

• Implement a robust trade routine to review and manage the store sales plus KPI performance.
• Analysing financial and commercial reports weekly, from this produce a store weekly trade report which summarises performance, opportunities, and actions.
• Clearly cascade and ensure implementation of weekly trading actions in your store.
• Ensure Store Management team have the right skills to commercially manage your store.
• Developing and implementing trading strategies to achieve sales targets and improve performance.
• Maintain strong, open communications within the General Manager, your Area Manager and Head of Retail.
• Focus on peak and the extra planning required to ensure success at this critical time of the year.
• Management of payroll & controllable costs through P&L reviews, identifying ways to improve efficiency and smarter ways of working.
• Drive an exceptional and consistent customer experience, ensuring that customer KPIs are achieved, and that customer service feedback is actively used to drive improvements.
• Analyse and seek relevant Customer insight to support you in understanding and driving your business.
• Engage with Branch/Merchandising and effectively communicate stock feedback & opportunities.
• Develop and maintain strong relationships with store local Market/BID.
• Keep up to date with what’s happening locally, external trends, and initiatives.

• Be an inspirational and motivational line manager, supporting your team with continuous learning and development within their roles.
• Ensure that your Store management teams have clear and measurable objectives, and the performance management cycle is used effectively.
• Role model our Pride Values and Leadership Behaviours and ensure they are embedded within your store.
• Establish a strong People team partnership to navigate ER and deliver our People KPIs. Take ownership and deliver required actions from people data and analytics.
• Ensure your store team are utilising tools and resources provided by L&D to create a culture of personal development in your store and successional planning.
• Partner with L&D to ensure that the right training is in place for your store team.
• Utilise feedback and engagement surveys to understand the opportunities within your store and take clear actions. Support your store management team with delivering this within their stores.

• Have a clear understanding of TWC operational & people policies and procedures, and ensure they are implemented in your store.
• Identify operational best practices, and opportunities to continuously improve ways of working to drive efficiency.
• Partner with the Loss Prevention team to proactively develop action plans to manage stock loss, stock accuracy and compliance in your store.
• Ensure Retail escalations are managed and followed up.
• Take a pro-active approach to H&S management to ensure a safe environment in your store.
• Work with facilities to ensure that your store is safe and well maintained.

The skills & experience that you’ll need

• Ability to build and maintain effective relationships with both internal and external stakeholders.
• Proven experience in managing high turnover, high profile stores with sizeable team.
• Proven track record in developing experienced managers.
• Understanding of the White Company customer & brand.
• Strong leadership skills.
• Solid analytical and organisational skills.
• Excellent communication skills across all mediums.

PRIDE in everything we do

• Passionate: We look for team members who are passionate about their expertise or role, who bring the best of themselves to work and have fun with it. We need people who are passionate about offering impeccable service to customers and colleagues.
• Resourceful: We love hearing from people who use their initiative to solve problems or make processes more efficient. We value people who use their industry knowledge to support the success of the team, and those who care about sustainability.
• Imagination: The best people at The White Company bring creative ideas and offer solutions to problems. We encourage everyone, no matter how junior, to share their ideas and have a voice.
• Dedication: We look for people who want to go above and beyond for their team and the business. We love seeing evidence of drive from people who are dedicated to being the best in their field of expertise.
• Everyone: We all want The White Company to do well and we do that through a One Team, inclusive approach. We need team members who are supportive, respectful people who share ideas and support team wellbeing.

Note: This outline is to be used as a guide only. Changes in this Job Description may occur as the department changes and grows.