RETAIL growth expert Sarah Pavlou is changing the way business owners at Sunderland’s Jacky Whites market operate.
Recruited by Sunderland BID and Sunderland City Council, Sarah’s role is to help small stalls and businesses flourish in the ever-changing market, while keeping the heritage which makes them so special.
“Jacky Whites is such an amazing place, it’s steeped in history and has a rich, diverse selection of stalls which we want to encourage,” she said. “We don’t want to change what the stallholders do, we just want to make them more successful.”
East Boldon-based Sarah is the founder of Kyclo, a firm which specialises in retail growth, and has worked with everyone from market stalls to retail giants, now drafted in to help transform the way retailers in Jacky Whites think.
“We are working with a lot family businesses, or people who have worked there on the same stall for 30-40 years, and we want to ensure that we can help them thrive in the future.
“What we’ve found so far is that people aren’t scared of change –they want change – but in many cases they don’t know how to go about it, or what actually needs to change.”
Sarah’s work involves helping traders with all elements of the business, in areas like product, presentation of stock, marketing out of the box and helping boost commercial insight, with the aim of ultimately making the traders and the city as a whole more successful.
She visits the market at least twice a week and hosts regular training, coaching and motivational workshops and is always on hand to offer advice and help when needed.
“We have a great deal of talent among the traders in Jacky White, and my aim isn’t to change them, but to harness this talent to make them even better. The market is an incredible place, and we all want to safeguard it for the future and we feel by helping traders get the very best from what they have, we can help them grow further.
“I am a firm believer in the high street, and although franchising is a successful business growth method for many retailers, consumers are becoming tired of a ‘copy and paste’ culture, where city centres are all identical – we need a mix of both where we also highlight the USP of our city centres, encourage our next generation of talent to stand tall in the retail market and bring our high streets back to life.
“What we have here in Sunderland with Jacky Whites is something very special. We want to help traders grow and prosper. There’s no reason why the world can’t be their oyster, and we believe together we can make Jacky Whites a focal point which the city can be very proud of.”