Assistant Plantarea Manager

A new opportunity has arisen for an experienced Plantarea Assistant Manager with a garden retail or nursery background to join a family run garden centre in Essex. Established for nearly 40 years, the company offers a wide range of carefully curated plants, to handpicked, stylish gardenalia and giftware. This lifestyle retail centre is a haven of ideas, originality, and quality where the emphasis has always been on maintaining a friendly, family orientated garden centre, where service is of paramount importance. The business is thriving, as is the aim of ensuring it remains ahead of the competition in this niche market.

Job Description

The Plantarea Assistant Manager will play a crucial role in supporting the overall management of the department. Working closely with the Plantarea Manager to ensure the smooth operation of all aspects related to plants, gardening products and customer service within the designated area. This is a rare opportunity for candidates to showcase their talent in a friendly and supportive environment on a full time, permanent basis.

Key Responsibilities

General duties will include but are not limited to:

• Plant care and maintenance: Overseeing the health and maintenance of all plants within the department; including watering, pruning, pest and disease control.
• Visual merchandising: Create visually appealing displays to showcase the plants and gardening products. Ensuring displays are regularly refreshed and season offerings are prominently featured.
• Stock management: Assist in managing stock levels to meet customer demand; processing deliveries and assisting with stock takes.
• Customer service: Provide excellent customer service by assisting customers with plant selection, offering gardening advice and answering enquiries about plant care and maintenance.
• Sales and promotion: Implementing promotional strategies, such as sales events to attract customers and promote products and services to increase sales.
• Health and safety: Ensure compliance with health and safety regulations within the plant area to help maintain a safe environment for staff and customers.
• Administrative tasks: Managing paperwork and maintaining records related to stock levels and sales.
• Business Development: Help develop the department with new ideas and outside-the-box thinking; keeping aware and up to date with the latest garden trends and horticultural news.

Candidate Skills

The ideal candidate will have experience working within the horticultural sector and be looking to take that next step in their career.  Due to the close-knit nature of the team and the centre, applicants will be required to help across all departments of the garden centre where needed. Applicants for this opportunity must be vibrant and enthusiastic with a genuine passion for delivering excellent customer service within the plant area.

Applicants will have:

• Good horticultural knowledge.
• Ideally forklift training or willingness to learn.
• Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written.
• Strong numerical and IT skills.
• Proven success in a similar customer-facing role within the Garden Centre sector and be looking to demonstrate their creative flair in a company that actively avoids the norm in favour of individuality.

If this Plantarea Assistant Manager vacancy is of interest, please apply or contact Sophie Sharpe.

Thank you for the interest you have shown in this Plantarea Assistant Manager vacancy.  Unfortunately, due to the high volume of applications that we receive, it is not possible to respond to every one.  Therefore, unless you hear from us within the next 14 days, your application for this Plantarea Assistant Manager vacancy will have been unsuccessful.