The Sludge

Well guys, i can only apologise for not being on here much of late. Ive been travelling to Shirebrook in Leicestershire and some days Ive been leaving at 5am and not getting back home until 10pm

All i can say is wow!!! Ive really joined a great company thats going places and if you didnt know its a company you all have heard of, SPORTSWORLD. The attention to detail and progression is fantastic.

The company now>
1st in the uk as sports retailer
450 stores in uk
15 stores in belgium
employs 14000 staff
fleet of 120 lorries
turnover this year so far is £300 million
we OWN Slazenger, Dunlop, Umbro, Donnay, Diadora, Lonsdale,Lillywhites
We trade under Sportsworld, sports ski, field and trek, original shoe company, lillywhites, nevisports
We sell around 100,000 pairs of trainers a month

The warehouse>
1.5 million sq feet
100,000 pallet spaces
1500 staff employes there
warehouse holds £28 million of stock and this gets turned around every 8 weeks
has its own 3 generators in event of power failure
has 9,000 tonnes of warehouse racking

The future>
to be number 1 in the world
to be trading in Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Turkey by 2009
To be trading in USA by 2010
12 more stores opening before xmas
200 stores opening next year taking us to over 600 stores
the warehouse as you have already read is 1.5 million sq ft holding 100,000 pallets. Phase 2 next month sees a 2nd warehouse being built holding 80,000 pallets, pahse 3 next year another warehouse holding a further 80,000 pallets, phase 4 in 2009 another warehouse holding 80,000 pallets, a specially built railway line being built in order to have our own FREIGHTLINER terminal with our own trains to bring the stock in, phase 5 in 2010 a massive hotel and leisure complex being built next to the warehouses to train managers and give them accomodation
stores from next year will be 60,000sq ft as we are taking on the leisure industry and creating our own fitness health gyms above the stores.

PHEW!!!

I think thats it. What better place can i be in with a company that wants and will be number 1 in the world let alone the uk. I did initially have my reservations about them as i know nothing about sportswear but what i have seen now and the plans for the future really excite me.

So, I am off to my own store in Kidderminster tomorrow and see how it goes.

dave cos4x4

iTrader: (5)

really glad things are going good for you Ian.

hope you acheive your goals with them.

The Sludge

Thanks Dave. Its been a tough tought year but im getting there fella. Hows you anyway

dojj

iTrader: (3)

sounds like you are going places then mate

turnover sounds good, but it's the end of year profits you need to look at, last year we did £400,000,000 and in the next few years we look like we'll be breaking into 10 digits so if the profits are good, we get a big slice of them

just make sure you have time off every once in a while, 17 hour days is just about enough for me and i've still got to get home yet

Shings

I hope you do well Ian....


Just dont be fooled by all the blurb- remember you have been inducted into a company and they're hardly going to tell you its shit!

.. ask yourself how much of the stuff above is achievable... bare in mind that they only own the companies who have actually almost gone bust in the last decade or so... they are the MATALAN and TKMAX of the Sports wear world... Lillywhites actually got kicked out of House of Fraser in Birmingham as a result of not stocking any decent gear and generally being shit. (when I say kicked out- they're concession was terminated- which for a HOF concession is very very bad- HOF didn't even have anyone to replace it they just shoved more tv's in the space)

Remeber retail is hard (I know you've come from a retail back ground) and if they have any real ability and ambition to get anywhere you will be pushed harder than a cossie T3 on a gunship map...

Remember nobody passes a probation period but peope do fail or do have them extended.

I am sure there are lots of key focus's they have set you as a store manage but looking at the stores themselves as a previous retail manager and a customer I would say shrinkage would be a key focus- and also tidyness of stores... I always find them a shit to get round as they're packed to the rafters- a lot of stuff has been on the floor and is of very poor quality.

The employees also tend to be little kids and you never see a manager or as we used to say at CPW " a sensible adult " I think now you're in the "golden quarter" a key focus will also be to keep the ques down as much as possible.



Not trying to shit on your parade as I am sure you will do well Kiddy is a good location for one of these stores.

I would also delete the information about stock holding-- I know from secondments to logistics within CPW and Phonebox that stock holding is a very closely guarded secret within givin industries...


ANyways good luck

J

SteveB

iTrader: (3)

I find Sportsworld a serious pain in the arse..... always far too much stock absolutly everywhere with no room to move and the queues to actually pay are a piss take.


Good luck

Steve

Thrush

iTrader: (1)

Good to hear you're enjoying - but you'd NEVER get me as a retail store manager again When I managed Halfords I learnt very quickly that retail sotre management was shit (IMO )and I never want to do it again!

american

umbro was bought out by nike last week, $580 million. Good luck on taking over the world.....in the US, we've got sports stores with names like: Sport AUTHORITY, Modells, Gart Sports and one of the biggest stores on the eastern shore.....DICKS! i shit you not, DICKS!

dave cos4x4

iTrader: (5)

Ian,

i'm fine thanks,cars still keeping me busy etc...

see you soon mate.

MattyRST

I find sportsworld(crewe shop) ok but dosent stock as much football boots/trainers as the likes of jjb sports. And when i had bought a football shirt from jjb, sportsworld had it slightly cheaper

Lee Reynolds

One thing sportsworld is good for and thats cheap Nike distance soft golf balls and golf atire

Glad its going well Ian

dakar

iTrader: (1)

Totally agree with that

Big G

The gear reminds me of charity shops, just feels 2nd hand.

ballin

iTrader: (1)

What a load of old bollocks mate sorry - they are a cheap company with ambitions bigger than they will achieve in my opinion.

It's easy to say all that, but doing it is another thing. I wonder what their PROFIT is per year, turnover means sweet FA

The Sludge

after 5 weeks all i can say is this.

Its the worst fooking job i have ever done in my life and cant wait to get out of there. I have an interview with Machine Mart on Tuesday so fingers crossed

Daviet

whats happened??

RWD_cossie_wil

iTrader: (9)

whats up with it Sludgy? Shame as you were so happy at the start

The Sludge

too many hours tbh. Like next week is this

mon- 10-8
tue 6-4
weds 10-8
thurs 6-4
fri 10-8

no problem there really, until you think its a 45 minute drive each way and its soooo late when i get back especialy after cashing up which means it can be 9pm when i get out

i think the big factor is the fact i have gone from an overall manaher to a footwear manager and i cant deal with it especially as the new manager a cock.

Im supposed to deal with my staffs rotas and breaks etc, but he has taken that from me. I have had 2 verbal warnings in a week of him starting there

1. for making a coffee when not on proper break
2. leaving store 2 minutes early before my end of shift

yet when he sint there i have to run the store, which is really then the only best day i have.

dojj

iTrader: (3)

you think you have long hours 76 hours th eother week i worked, and the only reason i did 66 the next week was because junior went to hospital twice

but on the flip side, i only work 4 minutes away and don't use my own vehicle to go to and from

sorry to hear that you've decided to ditch it after being so enthusiastic about it at the start, machine mart sounds much closer and you won't feel like such an egg

ballin

iTrader: (1)

It's Czech Mate

LOL at people dissing turnover figures and just asking what the profits are

Turnover year on year is one of the biggest single indicators of how well a company is doing

ballin

iTrader: (1)

Turnover means just that, turnover. It is not a representation of how well the company is doing financially at all, profit determines that.

dojj

iTrader: (3)

turnover is just the amount of money they are getting in overall
if you start trading and it costs you £50 a week to run your shop and you only sell £10 worth of stock, your turnover is going to be £2600 but your net losses are going to be £2080 a year, so not really a good indication of how well the company is doing eh

on the other hand if you sell even £50.01 of pruduct a week then you have made 52p profit for the year

the figures are unimportant in this scenario, think of it as %'s of profit vs money going in and out

The Sludge

I wasnt impessed with machine mart at all tbh. Bit of a mad company if you ask me.

God knows what i am going to do now.

dojj

iTrader: (3)

think of the tools you'll be able to get from there

they ain't bad and it's a job at the end of the day

so what if you aren't looking after a big store with hundreds of employees? it's less hassle working for someone else and trying to find your feet

Dave McB

Worked for em up in Scotland for a number of years ago.

Had a crackin time, but its hard hard hard graft.

If ur not used to workin like an inmate then its not for u.

Moneys gettin better AFAIK.

They keep phonin me offerin jobs (helps that i know onr of the top managers in scotland)

good luck!!

Big G

Good Managers can handle the pressure and reap the rewards from ball aching about, shit managers dont

Maxfield

You sure it's not Shirebrook in Nottinghamshire?

Seen as there's a big Sports World there and it's about 2mins away from my house.

Rs Baz

why cant you ever stick to one job most job's you seem to have you dont like it or there is something you dont like about it

sportsworld gear is fooking crap and cheap shit it seems like thay use cheaper clothing and just put the name on it .

what happend about these business idea's you had

Brookesy

Was kidderminster that bad Ian

Big G

Even Ronnie Barker couldnt have written something that comical