#AmazingAccrington

A Billion Pound Mission for Amazing Accrington Business Driven by Paul Kendrick

Q. Good to see you’ve got an A-list cast to promote the business. Will we be seeing Peter Andre here in Accrington? Peter Andre is the face of our partnership with ITVs flagship show, I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here. As a previous contestant and as a family man, he was a perfect choice for this campaign. I'm not sure we'll be seeing him in Accrington but you never know… Q. You’re a large part of the Amazing Accrington business leaders’ group. What do you think the future holds for Accrington town centre? I don’t think the high street will ever go back to the bustling central business district it once was. The way people shop has changed and business has to react to customer trends. Customers have moved online and we’ve followed, through covid it’s happened even faster. Looking at the role of the high street, it needs to attract people. It needs to give people a reason to go there and I suspect that will be more about entertainment. It’ll be about restaurants, coffee shops, and visitor attractions. Doing that creates more footfall and retailers always go where there are people. The future is going to bring a lot of changes, but we’ll be here to help things go in the right direction for Amazing Accrington. For more information about Studio Retail and to see their online catalogue visit www.studio.co.uk

Paul Kendrick, Managing Director and soon to be CEO of Studio Retail.

Great bargains in time for Christmas.

Studio Retail is a powerful force for good in the local community. We met up with the man in charge, Managing Director and soon to be CEO Paul Kendrick.

Q. You’ve been promoted from Managing Director to Chief Executive Officer starting in March 2021. How will your role change and what differences are you looking to bring? As MD, I already run the Studio Retail business, and as I step up to CEO I will also take on our separate Education business. Another key difference is a shift in focus on to the wider world and where we’re going within it. Now we’re setting the overall ambition for the firm. We want to double the size of the business in five years, and the way we’re going to do that is by growing our customer base and increasing their average spend per order. Q. As Hyndburn’s biggest employer you’ve got a lot of responsibility to your staff and to the local economy. What challenges have you faced? We are a very large employer, but it’s not just the volume of jobs, it’s the breadth. There’s the warehousing, logistics, and customer service. We also employ over 120 people in Buying and Merchandising. We’ve got a fantastic marketing department making TV ads. There are ecommerce roles because a lot of our business is online now and data analytical roles too. For people wondering where to get a career in Accrington, we’re creating new and exciting opportunities all the time - over 100 permanent jobs since March. Q. How have you coped with the covid pandemic situation? As soon as the lockdown was announced, I quickly made the decision to focus on three priorities. Firstly, to keep our colleagues safe. We’ve had 400 people working from home since the start and that’s given us the space for social distancing. We took advice from Public Health England to make sure people are safe when they come to work.

We’ve really focused on wellbeing and that means investing in our colleagues, in the work environment, and in development opportunities. We’ve had national recognition for our work in mental health awareness. So, we’ve got 24 mental health first aiders, in addition to our traditional, physical first aiders. Secondly, to help our customers, we’ve got the Financial services side of the business, so we’ve been able to give 25,000 people a payment holiday. To make sure more people become aware of Studio's great value offer we have continued to invest in TV and have partnered with ITVs leading show, I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here which is likely to attract record viewers given the new format this year! Q. How have sales faired during lockdown? What has been your best seller? Initially it was the fitness products, then it was the gardenware. But in terms of pounds value, it’s been the inflatable hot tubs. They’re fantastic and they’ve been going out of the door as fast as we can get them. Q. As a business you give back a lot through your Corporate Social Responsibility programmes, be it sponsoring food festivals or Christmas toy giveaways, what else have you got planned? We really try to give back to the community and we’re always looking out for new things to do. At the beginning of lockdown we gave Easter eggs to NHS staff. We’ve tried to help parents and teachers with home schooling by sending out education packs. We even heard of an NHS nurse who had all her garden furniture stolen so we replaced it free of charge. We are always looking at ways to support our local community.

Clothes, appliances and homewares available to purchase from Studio.

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