Stewarts Rising Star is “a great guy and this is doing him a lot of good.” That’s the verdict from Stewarts Garden Centres MD, Martin Stewart when interviewed by GTN Xtra about their Rising Star finalist Matthew Fay. “It’s given him a focus, it’s got his adrenalin pumping at times and it’s made him think. It’s growing him you can see that already.”
Matthew himself says that he was a shy and quiet person when he was nominated for Rising Stars by Stewarts Head of Retail and Marketing, Terry Head. “I was slightly nervous, I wasn’t too sure what to expect,” he said while giving us a tour of the impressive Garden Shop at Stewarts in Christchurch. “Out of everything from Rising Stars, my confidence has now gone up by 100%; I’m really pleased about that.
Matthew Fay joined Stewarts from college 9 years ago. With a background studying Geography and Geology at A level and an interest in horticulture he sent his CV into the garden centre business and they created a role for him as and assistant in garden sundries. Since then he has grown through outdoor stoneware, onto Garden Shop Supervisor with a staff of 5 reporting to him and has now been pushed on as a Duty Manager as well.
Matthew has worked at Stewarts through good and bad gardening seasons but told GTN Xtra that after the changes implemented as a result of rising stars; “it’s been our best season to date, certainly the best in five years and at the moment we’ve gone past the barrier for a record year for Garden Shop.”
“The whole team were behind me and the new ideas have been implemented without any problems. My manager, Duncan Witt, supported me so it’s all gone smoothly well.”
The things that Matthew feel have helped the most from Rising Stars are that tutor Ian Boardman “has given us a whole fresh base on ideas; all of the new techniques have really helped. Ian is very positive the course wouldn’t be the same without him.”
From a personal development point of view it’s the travelling away to the course that has really helped Matthew grow: “The best part of the course is the night away meeting all the other Rising Stars and looking in other garden centres.”
Both Matthew and Martin Stewart are keen to encourage other garden centres to enter their Rising Stars in the future. “I would say hurry up and get your name down. It has certainly helped me and for anyone else it will certainly help too,” said Matthew.
Martin Stewart added: “I suppose you’ve got to ask yourself the question – if you haven’t got someone who you think would benefit from Rising Stars then you probably need to go and find that person. We were very lucky to have Matt aboard and he deserves this chance and this break but I’d say to anyone find your best young talent and put them on it and if you haven’t got someone who is suitable then perhaps you ought to go and find someone that you could do it for.”
“At the end of the day we’re quite insular businesses so where do you go to help develop people? You can give them lots of experience and training here in the garden centre. But I have to say, what Westland have done has been perfect it’s just been a great way of helping grow some natural talent.”
Matthew, along with the other four finalists for 2014, will be presenting at the GCA Conference in January. Delegates will then be able to vote for the winner of Rising Stars 2014.
The five finalists of the Garden Centre Association Rising Stars Programme, sponsored by Westland Horticulture, are: Kirsty Clark (Perrywood GC), Matthew Fay (Stewarts Garden-Lands, Christchurch), Lisa Waim (Haskins Snowhill), Hannah Mason (Chessington) and Cerys Williams (Perrywood) have all made it through to the final challenge, where they will present at the GCA Conference in Chester on 26 January. The overall winner will be chosen by conference delegates.
The results are the culmination of an eight month programme in which candidates attended three merchandising Masterclasses run by IBBIS director and training facilitator Ian Boardman. Thanks to Ian’s efforts, many of the Rising Stars went on to increase sales in their departments by keeping hotspots fresh, creating clear signage and organising themed displays throughout the year.
Ian Boardman said: “All the Rising Stars who took part in the programme were top notch and I’d like to thank every single one of them for their efforts and praise them for the progress they have made. The results of their achievements in their workplace prove they are all stars in their own right!”
Keith Nicholson, Marketing Director for Westland Horticulture said: “On behalf of Westland I’d like to congratulate the Rising Stars finalists for getting this far. We now face a very exciting GCA conference final where delegates will get the chance to vote for the winner – Rising Star of the Year 2014.”
GCA chief executive Iain Wylie said: “The five finalists have some really exciting presentations prepared for delegates. It is always the highlight of the GCA conference and this year will definitely not disappoint.”
Twenty-eight of the most aspiring young representatives of the horticultural industry kicked off the Rising Stars Programme earlier this year.
The original list of 28 was whittled down to 10 in September before the final five were chosen.
GTN Xtra will be featuring a spotlight on all five over the coming weeks.
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