Kirsty Clark is a key member of Perrywood’s team that won the accolade of The Greatest BBQ Sales Team 2014 this summer, and now she is a Rising Stars finalist preparing her presentation for the GCA Conference in January 2015 where the winner of the scheme sponsored by Westland will be decided.

Kirsty joined Perrywood four years ago after completing a degree in Equine Studies and Business at Writtle College. “I applied for a giftware position but I didn’t get taken on in that role, instead I was offered the role of Retail Sales Assistant in the Garden Shop and Market Street.   I’ve not had a horticultural background but I have enjoyed gardening with my grandparents and mum from a young child,” she explained when GTN Xtra met her earlier this month.

Now, Kirsty is Senior Retail Assistant, the number two to her supervisor and looks after 16 staff when she is not in.  The Market Street area at Perrywood is her main responsibility.  “Furniture, solar lighting, wall art, BBQ’s, things like that throughout the summer months and then as it goes into Christmas that turns into Christmas.   Then when we have bulbs in I’m in charge of them too, both spring and summer flowering bulbs.  There’s no quiet time, were very busy throughout the year.”

“We work well as a team and get on with it.  Some of my colleagues have been asking why I’ve done things in a certain way: Why would you only have one thing there rather than use the space and put more items there?  I have suggested that we all do some merchandising training so everyone can understand why we’ve done the Masterclasses for Rising Stars.”

“When we go to the Masterclasses and get all the information and advice from Ian Boardman he has just opened my mind up to a lot of different ways of doing things and what not to do. He’s a really good teacher and puts it across in a way that you can understand and he doesn’t make anything too complicated, yet he makes it complicated enough so it’s not dumbing things down.  When you’re at the Masterclasses you don’t feel like you want to shut off like you do at some training things – you’re actually concentrating and interested throughout the whole day.”

“My confidence has improved the most really to be honest.  I’ve not really been the most outgoing person but since I’ve been doing the course I’ve put forward more of my own ideas when they’ve been asking people for ideas with regards to demonstrations and displays.”

Just as with the other finalists, we have to wait until GCA Conference to learn all about their Rising Stars projects, however Kirsty tells us that she was shocked at the results:  “There’s been some pretty good results from my areas, some of them were pretty big improvements.  It’s brilliant actually, beforehand I didn’t’ have a clue what I was doing when it came to merchandising.  Danielle, our main merchandiser used to help me out with all the merchandising but now I can get on and do my own thing and it’s actually alright.”

Simon Bourne, who nominated Kirsty for the scheme backs that up:  “Kirsty has shown that she knows the products that she sells inside out but we really wanted to find out what Kirsty could do and how far she could push herself so we nominated her to learn about retailing to learn about garden centres and to really benefit her with the products she sells. Being able to go out of the business, take time out and look at how things can be done have been really beneficial. It’s given a little separation away from work to really think about things.  This year we’ve been exceptionally busy and the projects that Kirsty has been involved with have really worked.”

Perrywood had four staff members take part in Rising Stars 2014.  “All have benefitted, even the two who didn’t get through to the final.  It’s increased their confidence and they have come along in leaps and bounds.  The workshops that Ian Boardman ran were really fun and interesting.  What the team came home with was that what they were doing was pretty good!”

The last word should go to Kirsty.  “If you get a chance to take part in Rising Stars just go for it!  At the end of the day, yes you have to come away from work to travel to the Masterclasses but it’s not that hard.  What’s good about going to these different centres was we can see how they do it, look at their ideas and see how it works and I found that really helpful.  Now even if I’m out shopping somewhere I pop into garden centres and see how they do things.  I definitely recommend Rising Stars.

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.

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