Gold Pencil for Shaun | Taranaki News | Local News in Taranaki

SHAUN McCarthy of Eltham 4-Square has every reason to be smiling at the moment; his store has just received an award for being generally excellent.
Those who have been around Eltham in the last 18 months would have seen that Eltham’s 4-Square business has been expanding its range and generally going from strength to strength. Well, it seems locals haven’t been the only ones who have noticed positive differences, with the little store receiving a special Gold Pencil award from parent company, Foodstuffs.
“The Gold Pencil award acknowledges general retail excellence,” says Shaun.
“Our store is part of the lower North Island region of stores and this award acknowledges being the best out of 98 other 4-Squares. It’s a great achievement.”
To qualify for the award, Shaun and his team had to demonstrate overall excellence with regard to the look and feel of the store, the performance of his team and involvement in his community.
“This award is for the whole team here at the store who all work so hard to make this a great place to work.”

New culture
Since taking over at the start of 2009, Shaun has overseen huge expansion in the range and volume of what’s on offer, as well as spearheading changes in the culture of the store.
“The number of staff has gone from four to 25 and I try and impress on them all three simple principles: keep the store clean, keep it full and make it fun for each other, and the customers.”
To keep it fun, 4-Square now has an Employee of the Month programme; and if you look carefully, you’ll see that every Friday is ‘I Love Eltham’ day.
“We also a good training programme and we’re all constantly learning how to do our jobs better. We take on lots of students too and teach them how to operate in a workplace environment; all the discipline and expectations that go along with that.”
So popular has the place become that Shaun reports that at least once a day he gets people coming into see if there are any jobs going.
Obviously having good staff has helped Eltham 4-Square develop, but ultimately increased custom has played the biggest part in moving the store forward.
“We like to make it fun for the customers so try and have lots of prize draws and giveaways. We like to keep these locally focussed so that local people win and, more often than not, we’re running our own individual promotions rather than simply national ones.”
The special promotional deals that Shaun runs often come because he taps networks he developed in his former life in Upper Hutt; before coming to Eltham he had a number of high profile jobs, including marketing manager roles for Fly Buys, Eta and Griffins.

New challenges
“My family chose to come to Eltham because we wanted a new challenge and saw this as a great opportunity; to be in charge of our own business.”
Now with the Gold Pencil award behind him, Shaun’s all ready for his next challenges – further developments at Eltham 4-Square.
“We’re planning to install a brand new oven so we can make our own fresh breads, and we’re putting in a slushy machine. We’re also preparing to change the counter arrangement at the front of the store.”
And as long as Shaun is at the helm, Eltham locals can expect more cheese-related activities, with Cheese-rolling, MasterScone and the Cheese Scone Competition having been so successful.
“Being involved in the community is essential in this kind of retailing – making connections with locals helps you understand what their needs are, which helps you work out what products to stock.”
To this end, Shaun believes in the 4Rs – building Relationships gets the Repeat business that means people Recommend your business, creating Referrals down the track; a mantra that has, so far, served Eltham 4-Square well.