As Spar's trading manager for fresh, Florey says his favourite part of the job is being involved with the introduction of new ranges from the embryonic stage right through to the shelf and then "seeing the sales rolling in".
Recalling his last week, Florey says Monday started by reading through overnight emails and studying the sales figures of 51 new lines. This was followed by the weekly department meeting to catch up with the latest in his sector.
Florey jokes that the highlight of Tuesday was a call from a potential supplier asking if he would buy in a premium dog food for the NAAFI stores to sell to the military police for their guard dogs.
However he admits that he does sometimes get irritated by suppliers who try to sell unsuitable products because they have not researched Spar's business and the convenience market.
On Wednesday, he visited a supplier to conduct a review on quiche. Florey says the day was spent "tasting current and competitor's products, improving our recipes and changing the range to best fit the needs of our consumers and the market".
Similarly he visited the pâté and premium cooked meat supplier on Thursday to discuss how to improve Spar's offering and decide what will go in store for Christmas.
Thursday proved to be his busiest day of the week as he also had to attend a meeting to update Spar's promotions plan, which is refreshed every three weeks, and prepare a presentation for the Meat & Livestock Commission to discuss Spar's new fresh meat launch. It was a late finish for all, says Florey, but he did have the luxury of a long weekend as he took Friday as holiday.

{{JOBS & CAREERS }}

Topics