Lisa Waim, the Rising Stars finalist from Haskins Snowhill garden centre is firmly focused on the "winning lines" after her year of training on the GCA scheme sponsored by Westland.

"Rising Stars has drawn the focus for me," said Indoor Manager Lisa when GTN Xtra met her this week.  "I personally feel more under pressure when I see my warehouse is full.  The holding area where all the fresh stock is coming in and you’re just trying to hit stock as quick as you can.  But going on the course really made me focus on taking half an hour to look at my figures and go right, there’s the winning lines, I’ve got to make sure I’m getting those out first and prioritising them. But then it wasn’t just me doing that, I then had to get the other guys on board with that too."

Lisa has worked at Haskins since college days when she was on the tills at the Roundstone Store, after a short spell away from Haskins she rejoined the Roundstone team 7 years ago and was promoted to Indoor Manager at Snowhill in 2009.

"As Indoor Manager I oversea the Christmas department which turns into furniture in the summer plus the sundries and gift departments.  I have 12 members of staff in the team, with extra agency temp staff at the moment for Christmas.”

Lisa was nominated for Rising Stars by Haskins Head of Retail Operations, Dean Ridley.   “Lisa has grown so much as a manager in the past few years and we thought this was a great opportunity to continue her development in an environment outside of her comfort zone.”

“Lisa has grown in this process and come back from the workshops with new merchandising techniques and thinking more commercially at how implementing them correctly can drive greater sales.”

Lisa herself has been surprised at the results of implementing the ideas and projects created on the scheme:  “The results were quite surprising for me.  When you really focus on something and get the team on board with it, that’s what I found really worked for me.”

“Initially we made really good headway, and then we hit peak.  We just never could have planned for such a good year and it hasn’t let up either.  That was a real challenge making sure I really took the time to focus on those winning lines and draw it back to that rather than just roll out the stock willy-nilly.”

Lisa has also used learning’s from the Rising Stars workshops to question and change head office promotional plans.  “Ian Boardman really brought it back in with the promo ends,” Lisa explained,  “we have a promo pack that is set out by head office and there were a few things on there I thought personally, that doesn’t ring true having that many products on an end.  So I actually questioned head office about that and said; ‘shouldn’t we be cutting that back? There is too much on the end that is making it confusing for people.’  And they took that on board.”

Lisa is also sharing her new found knowledge with other members of her team.  “When I come back from the garden centre visits and workshops a few keep asking questions:  What’s gone on, what can we learn from it?  They are really keen to hear what it’s all about, it’s made the penny drop and helped them think about how they are working.”

No wonder Dean tells GTN Xtra that Rising Stars has helped Lisa grow in confidence.  “I think Rising Stars is a great opportunity to develop our star players further and give them a chance to learn from other garden centres, network with lots of people in the industry.  And our business benefits as Lisa’s confidence and commercial acumen grows."

Lisa, 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.

Look out for next weekends GTN Xtra when we will be meeting the final contender, Kirsty Knight from Perrywood. 



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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