BLOG: Stores retail staying sweet

Samantha Silva - Managing Consultant

As a recruitment agency that specialises in retail jobs, we have a variety of well-nurtured contacts throughout the industry and have worked hard to build lasting relationships with several clients since their inception. One such client is chocolate retailer Hotel Chocolat, which we started recruiting for in 2004 when it opened its third bricks-and-mortar store.

Over the past eight years, we have placed many candidates with the flourishing company, mostly in Stores and Operations jobs and have seen the business grow both in the UK and internationally. The chocolate industry is often described as recession-proof as the public continue to flock to luxury confectionery for special occasions and indulgence whatever their finances. As such, Britain has seen steady store openings in recent times and this chocolatier & cocoa grower is in regular contact with us as it seeks to expand its evolving company with help from our specialist teams.

While many people may not have considered a career in this sector, there are numerous transferable skills that are invaluable in this growing area. Those who are commercially aware, with high customer service standards (which at Hotel Chocolat is known as the Guest experience!) and leadership skills will fare well in the industry and Hotel Chocolat even offers a chocolate diploma for store managers as it seeks to maintain high standards of expert knowledge of the products it sells to its guests.

In the retail sector, much is made of the need for sustainable and ethical requirements among larger retailers, particularly fashion stores, while the inner-workings of other sectors are less publicly scrutinised. Hotel Chocolat has created an Engaged Ethics programme that aims to provide sustainable benefits to cocoa-growing communities in Saint Lucia and Ghana.

Our long-standing work with the company and other chocolate retailers is testament to our engagement with the industry and indeed to the resilience of retailers that are often wrongly regarded as merely popular during annual events such as Valentine’s Day and Easter.

We are able to offer you work with some of the top retailers across a wide range of disciplines in this sector and are proud of our successful relationship with such esteemed clients, proving our ability to select a candidate who is perfectly suited to the role we are recruiting for.

- Samantha Silva, Managing Consultant for Operations

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