Redwood Consulting recently joined forces with our friends at NewRiver REIT to swap roles for a day on the shop floor at Templars Square Shopping Centre, in Cowley, Oxford.
On Wednesday 21 June, the Redwood Consulting and NewRiver teams swapped press releases and spreadsheets for coffee machines, grills and tills. Natasha Lee, Account Manager at Redwood, spent the day making paninis and clearing tables at Boswells Cafe; Harriet Scott, Junior Account Executive at Redwood, worked in New Look, getting the stock out for the new season. The day comprised of split shifts, with half spent with retailers and the rest in centre management. The team spread across a variety of centre-management roles, as well as retailers including Co-op, Poundland, Iceland, B&M, New Look, WHSmith, Select, Savers, Boswells and FeelFit Gym.
This was NewRiver’s second ‘Day in the Life’, and their team included asset managers, executive directors, finance, marketing and development teams, all out in full force both on the shop floor of various retailers at Templars Square and as part of the Centre Management team.
The ‘Day in the Life of’ initiative began in 2016 when Property Director, Allan Lockhart, was invited to shadow a centre manager for the day. The team set off for Paisley, Scotland for a day of retailing experience, and has such a useful time gaining valuable insights that NewRiver has committed to making it an annual programme. There’s no better way to keep a solid understanding of operations and retailer pressures than mucking in alongside. We were very pleased to be able to help out – you can see some of the action on the NewRiver video of the day.