Assistant Garden Centre Manager
Location: North Surrey
Salary: £32,000 (willing to flex for the right candidate)
Hours: 40 / week, alternate weekends

This is a fantastic opportunity to join one of the UK's most respected garden centre groups as an Assistant Garden Centre Manager, taking a key role in a well-established and busy centre with a strong local customer base.

The centre operates with a close-knit team of circa 20 staff across the garden centre and café, offering a friendly, supportive working environment while remaining commercially focused and fast paced during peak trading periods.

This role would suit an experienced garden centre or specialist DIY retail manager who enjoys being hands-on, values autonomy, and wants genuine input into how a centre is run.

What you'll be doing:

• As Assistant Garden Centre Manager, you'll play a hands-on role in the day-to-day trading of the entire centre, working closely with the Garden Centre Manager to ensure smooth operations and strong commercial performance.
• Direct responsibility for the sundries department, ensuring high standards of merchandising, availability, and sales performance.
• Overall responsibility for the day-to-day trading of the whole centre, supporting all departments as required.
• Acting as a keyholder, with responsibility for opening and closing, cashing up, and general operational control.
• Organising daily workloads and supporting a close knit, friendly team on the shop floor.
• Stock control and ordering, ensuring the centre remains well stocked and commercially strong.
• Working with the management team on merchandising, seasonal changes, and centre layout, with flexibility and creativity encouraged.
• Some responsibility for the café operation, with an established café manager in place to run the department day to day.
• Supporting HR processes and ensuring compliance with health, safety, and company procedures.

What they're looking for:

• Proven retail management experience, ideally within a garden centre environment.
• Candidates from strong specialist retail or DIY backgrounds will also be considered.
• A confident, capable retailer who is comfortable taking responsibility for a whole site.
• A hands-on, people-focused management style with the ability to organise and motivate a team.
• Strong commercial awareness, with experience in ordering, stock control, and performance analysis.
• A creative approach to merchandising, with the freedom to bring ideas forward.

Why join?

• Join a highly regarded garden centre group known for being a great employer.
• Supportive management structure and a positive, team-focused culture.
• Generous staff discount - up to 30% off products and 50% off restaurant meals.
• Increasing holiday allowance with length of service.
• Annual profit-related Christmas bonus.
• Company pension scheme and Cycle2Work participation.
• Recognition and reward schemes, birthday perks, and long-service awards.
• Free onsite parking.
• Full benefits package available upon request.

Apply now
To apply, send your CV to leo@morepeople.co.uk or call 01780 480530 for a confidential chat.