A work-experience placement from a FÁS Course resulted in Lesley Cleere landing her current job as part trouble-shooter, part administration manager for the busy Market Cross Shopping Centre on High Street in Kilkenny.
Lesley has officially held her current position for just two short months but has been working for the centre since October 2007. And, in the short time she has been in-situ, has made a number of changes including a review and subsequent overhaul of the centre’s advertising and marketing budget in order to bring it “right back to basics.”
Lesley believes “that as well as serving as a retail hub, the Market Cross also acts as a valuable community space and as such, should act as a venue for local organisations and individuals.” She has organised a number of successful promotional events with groups that include the Kilkenny School of Music, singer-singwriter Stephen Murphy, and the Castlecomer-based dance troupe from the ‘Body Rocks’ studio which provided young people, particularly teenage boys, with a valuable insight into how exactly they could be spending their free time rather than simply hanging around.”
“..... as well as serving as a retail hub, the Market Cross also acts as a valuable community space and as such, should act as a venue for local organisations and individuals.”
Lesley feels that one of her biggest challenges, with an open-door centre, is handling the vagaries of the Irish weather, particularly when it comes to organising events in the centre. Aside from that, Lesley seems to relish the sheer variety of her day-to-day work:
“ There really is no such thing as a typical day. I can be handling emails and correspondence, then I might do a walk through the centre with our cleaning contractors making a note of any works that need to be undertaken.
“ I’ll also make it my business to call into all the shops in the centre a few times a week to see how business is and to see how we can help the mangers and retailers who are essentially my ‘clients’ There’s a liaison job to do on an ongoing basis with Dublin as our management company is based there, while issues of health and safety would also occupy a large part of my time.”
Lesley’s background is in the beauty industry, working as an account manager for brands such as Sisley and Elemis. She returned from the UK to find that she couldn’t replicate the kind of salary or level of responsibility she commanded in the UK and although she has channelled the same marketing, sales and customer service skills in another direction, she still finds many areas of common ground.
“ I think I have an understanding and an appreciation of some of the challenges faced by the retailers in the centre, particularly at the moment as it is hard for retailers as people are afraid to spend money. By looking at promotional ideas and by focusing on local advertising we can all collectively benefit. For example Unicare ran a promotion recently and we targetted Banking 365 very successfully and it helped all the retailers in the Centre.”
The ‘bringing it back to basics ‘ policy certainly seems to be reaping reward as, according to Lesley, “footfall in the centre a couple of weeks ago was 12.5 per cent up on the same week in 2007.”
Lesley is very happy to continue to hone her skills and “to do what she’s doing and do it well. Long-term she’d like “to progress and look at providing trouble-shooting advice to businesses, retailers and others,” as she feels that she has a good eye and has broadened her experience, particularly in her position with the Market Cross Shopping Centre.”
