Christopher Finch
Calgary,Alta
Summary
To secure senior-level position in retail management in a progressive organization requiring a highly effective team leader with a demonstrated track record of contribution to bottom line profits.
Multi-unit retail manager with 25 years of supervisory and managerial experience coupled with a diverse background in consumer electronics, fashion & apparel, specialty retail, and food & beverage. Skills and experience include, but are not limited to the following: Profit & Loss Management Training & Development Recruitment & Selection Performance Management Building customer loyalty Visual merchandising Inventory & Shrinkage control Solutions Based Selling Project Management Experience in managing both union & non-union environments Extensive knowledge of Microsoft Office Applications
Overview
32
32
years of professional experience
Work History
Multi unit Brand Leader
All Saints
01.2022 - Current
- Enhanced brand visibility by developing innovative marketing strategies and campaigns.
- Spearheaded collaboration between cross-functional teams for consistent brand messaging across all channels.
- Managed a team of creatives to produce high-quality content, resulting in increased customer engagement.
- Achieved market growth through effective brand positioning and targeted advertising efforts.
- Created and managed budgets to maximize brand reach and engagement.
- Increased YOY results by 35%
- Highest yearly budget growth
District Sales Manager
IPhix Inc Canada
02.2022 - 09.2022
- Reduced costs by optimizing inventory levels and managing vendor negotiations effectively.
- Supervised 4 locations
- Enhanced team morale by fostering a positive work environment, recognizing achievements, and promoting professional development opportunities.
- Negotiated contracts with clients for mutual benefit while maintaining strict adherence to company policies and ethical standards.
- Devised strategies for retaining accounts, delivering polished sales presentations and promoting brands and products.
- Built relationships with customers and community to establish long-term business growth.
- Recruited, interviewed and hired employees and implemented mentoring program to promote positive feedback and engagement.
- Sourcing parts for repair
- Training and Developing in Calgary Market
- Supporting Calgary Market for staffing when needed during COVID shortages.
- Increased sales revenue by developing and implementing effective sales strategies for the district.
- Expanded market share with targeted account management and new business development initiatives.
- Improved team performance by providing regular coaching, training, and mentoring to sales representatives.
Manager
Roots Canada
06.2020 - 12.2021
- Reopening following COVID Restrictions
- Top store sales in Alberta Market
- Increased team productivity by implementing streamlined processes and effective communication strategies.
- Achieved departmental goals by developing and executing strategic plans and performance metrics.
- Training and Developing only ASM in Calgary Market
- Supporting Calgary Market for staffing when needed during COVID shortages.
Multi Unit Manager
Davids Tea
01.2018 - 01.2020
- Oversees up to 4 locations
- Returned locations to positive YTD results
- Recruited/Promoted 5 ASM/Managers in the Lower Mainland
- Functioned as Point contact on behalf of District Manager.
Area Manager/Head Coach
Nike Inc
01.2016 - 01.2018
- Area Manager: Grew area from 3-5 stores in Western Canada
- Annual District Sales of over 50,000,000
- Involved in 2 New Store Grand openings (Tsawwassen Mills and Winnipeg)
- Rolled out Servant Leadership concept with Canadian Managers
- Head Coach: Opened and Managed largest Factory outlet in Canada 55,000sq feet
- Developed 4 Athletes to next level
- Supported New Leader on-boarding process
- Supervised over 150 Athletes in 4 different Departments
- Leads and inspires customer centric culture by recognizing and rewarding team
- Responsible for employee dispute resolution and escalated customer situations
- Conducts weekly one on ones to address Visuals in Footwear/Apparel/operations and Shipping receiving
- Lead on District recruitment plan
- Rolled out and supported Work force Management scheduling system
- First and only 3.0 store layout in Canada
- Largest store opening sales for first day in Canada
- Community involvement partners with Winskill Boys and Girls club
- Supplied support staff for both Lower Mainland locations.
Store Manager
Skechers
01.2015 - 01.2016
- Opened B.C.’s Only Big Box outlet store
- District Health and Safety coordinator
- District Recruiting Lead
- District Loss Prevention Captain
- Handles Store and District customer service complaints
- Currently Canada’s #1 BBO store YTD sales
- Holding one of Canada’s lowest bulk count results Year to date with -13 units
- Less than 1% voluntary employee turnover since October (store open)
- Increased sales from 1.5 million – trending for 2016 over 4 million
- Community involvement partners with Langley Food Bank and Dreams Take Flight.
General Manager
Gap Inc
01.2012 - 01.2015
- General Manager: Accountable for focal process for all store employees
- Creates development and training plans for direct reports
- Ensures recruitment from a diverse applicant pool
- Develops succession plans to ensure career paths for all employees
- Leads and inspires customer centric culture by recognizing and rewarding team
- Responsible for employee dispute resolution and escalated customer situations
- Conducts weekly visual merchandising walk-throughs with key staff members
- Creates shortage action plan in partnership with the management team and Loss Prevention team to minimize loss and achieve shrinkage goal
- Increased Employee Engagement from 80% to 92% largest increases year over year in brand
- Reduced shrink from 2.89% to 1.78%
- Less than 1% voluntary employee turnover in 2014
- Increased sales from 2.9 million –over 4 million
- Community involvement partners with Surrey Food Bank and Dreams Take Flight.
General Manager
Williams Sonoma Inc
01.2011 - 01.2012
- General Manager: Creates and oversees implementation of action plans to improve key performance indicators to maximize business opportunities
- Assesses the effectiveness of the management staff by providing the appropriate level of performance feedback
- Evaluates store sales and payroll goals on a daily basis using key business reports and payroll tools
- Directs brand appropriate strategic merchandising to maximize sales
- Drives brand loyalty by leading an outstanding internal and external customer experience
- Hires, trains, develops and supervises Center of Excellence Managers and Supervisors
- Develops hiring plans for both Centers of Excellence
- Coaches leadership team members
- Accountable for focal process for all store employees
- Ensures community involvement to drive brand awareness and loyalty
- Increased sales 2.7 million to 4 million
- Increased Gift registry to 24% of business
- Community coordinator British Columbia cross brand Williams Sonoma Inc
- Re developed furniture inventory tracking system.
Area Manager | Store Manager & Area Trainer
Rogers Retail
01.2003 - 01.2011
- Area Manager: Responsible for managing all aspects of store operations within a geographical region
- Responsible for managing all HR related issues within the geographical region
- Responsible for employee dispute resolution and customer escalated situations
- Responsible for recruiting, coaching & developing Store Management teams
- Provides individual coaching or instruction, provides ongoing feedback, answers questions, communicates expectations and evaluates performance – delivers appropriate level of progressive discipline when necessary
- Develops succession plans to ensure career paths for all management
- Identifies, creates and manages the execution of Area business plan that drives Key Performance Indicator results, and maximizes business opportunities
- Consistently achieves and exceeds Area sales targets
- Maximizes stores profitability and Area’s Operating Income target
- Maximizes customer satisfaction scores and builds customer loyalty
- Facilitates and cascades communication across the store organization and acts as liaison to field leadership
- Project management responsibilities related to store openings and store closures
- Partners with manufacturers and third party vendors to train store teams and address supply issues within the market
- Builds strong, co-operative relationships with other representatives within the larger Rogers Communications organization
- Other special projects as assigned
- Store Manager & Area Trainer: Responsible for all daily store operations
- Responsible for hiring, coaching, training, and developing a team of 15-25 sales associates
- Responsible for assisting Area Manager as Wireless Specialist by providing individual coaching or instruction, ongoing feedback, answering questions, communicating expectations and evaluating performance of store managers and store teams
- Providing ongoing needs assessment of training content and materials in partnership with the Area Manager
- Facilitating regular succession training for management and store personnel for core wireless products, programs, systems and services
- Consistently achieved all sales and service objectives was regularly in the top 3 area wide
- Managed multiple locations in the absence of a Store Manager
- Proven track record for developing sales associates and managers
- Assisted in hiring and training new management
- Actively involved in supporting store managers within their stores to target and improve areas of opportunity
- Was part of the ‘Wireless Integration Team’ responsible for retraining Rogers Plus – Communications store teams as part of the transition process from being previously managed by a third party (Intertan)
- Was selected as part of a team of managers responsible for creating a detailed action plan to increase Wireless sales volume within select stores in the Home Entertainment channel of Rogers Retail
- Created weekly reporting to assist in bringing stores in line with achieving key metrics
- Point of contact in the absence of Area Manager
- Oversaw 12-14 Stores across British Columbia/Yukon
- Recommended and promoted to run highest volume wireless/ home entertainment store in Canada (6 million dollars)
- Created and implemented wireless training program in British Columbia
- Reduced Area wireless shrink by 2%
- Trained and promoted 15 Shift supervisors and Assistant store Managers to next level including Head office
- Developed and implemented a companywide filing and paperwork system
- Sat on manager advisory board for increasing sales and implementation of wireless to ALL home entertainment stores
- Supervised Opening for 3 new stores and Closed 6 Due to restructuring
- Involved in HR processes between HR dept and field
- Improved wireless sales in district by 11% largest district increase in company 2010
- Trained on-boarding for new head office employees.
Assistant Store Manager | Store Manager & District Training Supervisor
Bluenotes / Thrifty’s Jeans Company
01.2000 - 01.2003
- Store Manager & District Training Supervisor: Responsible for all daily store operations
- Responsible for the hiring, coaching, training, and developing a team of 30+ sales associates (including seasonal employees)
- Consistently achieved sales objectives and was regularly in the top 3 district wide
- Responsible for assisting district manager by facilitating first interviews for all management candidates
- Responsible for training and mentoring new Store Managers
- Transitioned sales and management teams during Thrifty’s to Bluenotes rebranding – opened the first ‘Bluenotes’ location in Western Canada
- Assisted in project managing new store builds, renovations, relocations and store closures
- Assisted in managing multiple locations in the absence of a Store Manager
- Proven track record for developing and promoting sales associates and Assistant Managers
- Created new systems now used company wide
- Was involved in various test/special projects
- Assistant Store Manager: Responsible for all daily store operations
- Responsible for the hiring, coaching, training, and developing a team of 40+ sales associates (including seasonal employees)
- Consistently achieved sales objectives and was regularly in the top 2 Canada wide
- Actively supported the manager with organizational tasks such as scheduling, budget planning and understanding the need for cooperation in order to achieve the larger organizational objectives
- Maintained weekly visual merchandising standard
- Operated 10 million Dollar Flagship Location on Robson Street
- Opened 6 new stores in Lower mainland
- Promoted 3 Assistant managers into next level
- Involved with company “Re branding” process.
General Manager
INTERWEST RESTAURANTS LIMITED
01.1999 - 01.2000
- Responsible for all daily store operations
- Responsible for hiring, coaching, training and developing a team of 15-20 sales associates
- Was responsible for opening franchisee’s second Tim Hortons location on Annacis Island
- Developed systems now used company wide
- Interacted with a variety of local businesses to increase sales.
Store Manager
STARBUCKS CANADA
01.1992 - 01.1997
- Responsible for all daily store operations
- Responsible for the hiring, coaching, training, and developing a team of 15-20 sales associates
- Managed the highest sales volume store in British Columbia
- Managed multiple locations in the absence of a Store Manager
- Managed both union and non-union locations
- Opened and managed the pilot kiosk for Starbucks within a Chapters location
- Opened, hired, and trained the team of Starbucks Whistler including all sales associates and management – was the first Starbucks location opened on a ski resort
- Involved in pastry test project
- Increased sales to top volume in District over Christmas period
- Selected as part of ‘Creating the Future’ which redefined Starbucks Canada’s mission statement- was instrumental in identifying key factors in effecting the customer experience.
Education
GRADE 12 GRADUATE -
Matthew McNair Senior Secondary
01.1991
Skills
- Customer Segmentation
- Data-driven Decision-making
- Sales Forecasting
- Agency Management
- Strategic Thinking
- Budget Management
- Project Management
- Team Leadership
- Internal Communications
- Staff Coaching
- Customer Service
Achievements And Interests
- Leadership Team Member (1987- 2001)
- TEENS ENCOUNTER CHRIST, CALGARY AND VANCOUVER - Participated in and redeveloped weekend for teenagers. Involved in counseling, cooking and work on the Board of Directors.
- ANGLICAN YOUTH MINISTRIES, CALGARY (1987-90) NEW WESTMINISTER (1990 – 1991) - Served as Chair, Vice Chair, Treasurer, and Member at Large.
- Certificate of Foolishness - CLOWN SOCIETY - Clowning including balloons, face painting and magic. Facilitated workshops.
References
Available on Request
Timeline
District Sales Manager
IPhix Inc Canada
02.2022 - 09.2022
Multi unit Brand Leader
All Saints
01.2022 - Current
Manager
Roots Canada
06.2020 - 12.2021
Multi Unit Manager
Davids Tea
01.2018 - 01.2020
Area Manager/Head Coach
Nike Inc
01.2016 - 01.2018
Store Manager
Skechers
01.2015 - 01.2016
General Manager
Gap Inc
01.2012 - 01.2015
General Manager
Williams Sonoma Inc
01.2011 - 01.2012
Area Manager | Store Manager & Area Trainer
Rogers Retail
01.2003 - 01.2011
Assistant Store Manager | Store Manager & District Training Supervisor
Bluenotes / Thrifty’s Jeans Company
01.2000 - 01.2003
General Manager
INTERWEST RESTAURANTS LIMITED
01.1999 - 01.2000
Store Manager
STARBUCKS CANADA
01.1992 - 01.1997
GRADE 12 GRADUATE -
Matthew McNair Senior Secondary
Similar Profiles
Christopher FrankChristopher Frank
Stylist/floor Manager at All SaintsStylist/floor Manager at All Saints
Cellou DialloCellou Diallo
Sales Associate at All SaintsSales Associate at All Saints
Anna (Ania) MatthewsAnna (Ania) Matthews
Family Link Worker at All Saints & Emscote Schools, All Saints ChurchFamily Link Worker at All Saints & Emscote Schools, All Saints Church