The deputy manager of a Lakes outdoors shop is the 2008 OIA Retail Employee of the Year
Mark Barnes, the deputy manager of a top
Ambleside outdoors
shop has been awarded the title of Outdoors Industry Association
(OIA) Retail Employee of the Year
after a process involving 5,000 miles of travel and 'mystery shoppers'.
The award, made by the outdoors industry's very own trade body,
attracted a record number of entries this year. Retail staff were
nominated by reps and agents operating right across the country and of
those suggested, some 40 were subjected to a rigorous assessment.
Mark Barnes (left) receives award from OIA chairman, Frank Bennett
(centre) with his shop manager, Joseph Cowell (right)
Mystery shoppers were part of the process which after 5,000 miles of
travelling across the UK, awarded an Ambleside outdoors shop deputy
manager the title of Outdoors Industry Association (OIA) Retail
Employee of the year resulting in a shortlist of three, with Mark
Barnes of the Climbers Shop landing the prize of £1,000 and a
holiday for two.
Mark, 40, is a keen ultra-distance runner and mountaineer who has
worked at the Ambleside outdoors shop for six years. The shop itself
will be familiar to most OMers who've visited the Lakes and was
established back in 1959, long before the streets of the small Lakeland
town were metaphorically paved with Gore-Tex...
Alistair Philips of the OIA says that the high standard of the nominees
confirms that the standard of service at independent outdoors shops is
very high and described the winner as 'truly exceptional' and a 'worthy
winner'.
Mark himself described winning the awards as 'a real honour' and says
that he tries to pass on his enthusiasm and passion for the
outdoors to his customers at the Climbers Shop. So there you go, there
are an awful lot of outdoors shops in Ambleside, but only only one
award-winning deputy manager.
