Assistant Store Manager
Cheltenham
Charlies Stores
£35-38,500 + Benefits Package
If you don’t know Charlies Stores, please read on and get excited!
About us
Charlies Stores has grown 78% over the previous 5 years to £85m turnover and boasts a thriving online presence and 8 stores, with the new Cheltenham store due to open in the first week of October 2025.
Charlies has earned an exceptional 4.9 rating on Trustpilot from over 50,000 customers and we’d encourage you to check out our customer reviews to understand our approach. Everything we do is underpinned by a never-ending passion and determination to better the customer experience – whether you’re shopping in store or online.
Charlies is an independent, family-run business selling over 90,000 different products which help customers enjoy their home, garden and time outdoors. Charlies stock a wide range of excellent quality products, and work hard to always offer them at the best possible price.
We will not burn you out, we believe in work life balance. We will empower you to run your business and encourage you to empower your own teams so that you create a healthy, thriving community of caring people within your store who all enjoy coming to work and take pride in running a great business together.
We hope you agree, this is a fantastic opportunity to help run our newest store on the Tewkesbury Road in Cheltenham as our full time Assistant Store Manager!
Who are we looking for?
A passionate retail Assistant Manager with an ownership mentality and a proven track record of driving strong store performance. You’re prepared to be as hands-on, not hierarchical, as needed to help the team during demanding periods. You combine the ability to lead, motivate, set the pace, empower and organise teams to deliver strong sales and customer experience with a strong commercial awareness. You’ll also need to be a confident and resilient character prepared to stand up to others and sometimes have courageous conversations. We’d also like someone who wants to learn, get better and is not afraid to try new things, whilst encouraging this mindset within their team. We’ll need you to be proactive, think a few steps ahead to the challenges coming your way and how you are going to solve them. You’ll embrace the pace, the hustle and the bustle!
Main Responsibilities
* Lead, motivate and assist managing a store team of around 40 employees.
* Be fully responsible for the daily operations of the store, ensuring a safe, clean, and well-organised shopping environment in the absence of the Store Manager.
* Lead, inspire, and develop the team to deliver outstanding service and achieve sales targets.
* Ensure effective stock control, product rotation, and visual merchandising across all departments.
* Support with seasonal transitions, including Christmas and gardening peak periods.
* Support in monitoring store performance and take action to maximise profitability.
* Uphold company standards in health & safety, loss prevention, and compliance.
* HR management with Store Manager’s support.
* Be commercially focussed to drive sales.
Requirements
* Previous experience as an Assistant Store Manager in a similar retail environment, ideally with some scale as the new Cheltenham Store will be turning over £8-10m per year once up to speed.
* Strong leadership, team management, and communication skills.
* Commercial awareness and the ability to analyse and react to sales data.
* Experience across a broad product range – familiarity with garden, hardware, clothing, machinery, plants or seasonal goods is a plus.
* A hands-on, can-do attitude and a passion for retail excellence.
* Proficient IT skills.
Benefits and Rewards
* Exceptional and enjoyable people culture, empowering, collaborative, supportive, friendly and non-ego driven environment.
* A competitive salary £35 – 38.500
* Personal online, accredited training platform with access to 100+ courses to assist with future development.
* 28 days holiday including bank holidays.
* Extra holiday entitlement following long service.
* Company pension contributions 3% / 5%
* Opportunity to be part of a long-standing and respected retail brand.
* A supportive and friendly working environment
* Up to 20% discount off company products brought in store, following a successful probation period.
* Retail Trust Membership, which includes Wellbeing support, Emotional support, Counselling, Legal and Financial advice. Trained Mental Health first aiders on site, to support. Enjoy savings on everyday costs to restaurants, holidays, retail vouchers and more.
* Opportunity to be part of a long-standing and respected retail brand.
Working Pattern:
* The full-time position is for 42.5 hours per week.
* The store is open 7 days a week, currently open 9:00 – 19:00 (to 18:00 Jan to Mar) Monday – Friday, 9:00 – 18:00 Saturday and 10:00-16:00 Sunday. You will be expected to work at least one day at the weekend within your 42.5 hours
* Charlies’ leadership encourages you to maintain a healthy work-life balance.
TO APPLY
Please contact Phil Topper at Seymour John.
Seymour John is the recruitment partner retained by Charlies Stores to fulfil this position who have a long and trusted relationship with the business. We can advise you on the people dynamics, culture fit and expectations to help you assess if this is the right move for you. Any CVs sent directly to Charlies will be forwarded to Seymour John for inclusion in their interview assessment process.
Closing date: Thursday 24th July 2025