15 North East retail staff who lost their jobs in the recent Woolworths collapse are enjoying a fresh start at the new GO Outdoors store on Portrack Retail Park in Stockton-on-Tees.
New GO Outdoors store manager Liz MacDougall and 14 staff all worked at Woolworths stores throughout the North East. And all now have new roles at the new GO Outdoors store which is now open and enjoys an official opening celebration this weekend – on Saturday March 28 th .
Liz said,
“ The Woolworths redundancy was a sad day for so many of us who had worked so hard. But less than four months later those days seem a long time ago thanks to our new beginning with GO Outdoors.
“ It made sense to recruit many of the Woolworths team because we all know the retail business inside out. But we’ve also recruited new staff including outdoor enthusiasts. Thanks to their product knowledge, our retail know how and some vibrant company training, we’re already building a fantastic new team.”
GO Outdoors Stockton on Tees becomes the national outdoor retail chain’s thirteenth store and the North East’s first themed 50,000 square feet outdoor superstore featuring a six-metre-high family-friendly climbing wall.
More than 1000 Teessiders applied for just over 30 retail roles at the store including warehouse staff, sales advisors and team leaders. It was the highest number of applications for roles in a new store in the retailer’s history.
Liz continued,
“ The demand for jobs at GO Outdoors has been incredible. We were hoping for a healthy interest in our new store but this has exceeded all our expectations. It’s officially the best recruitment campaign in the company’s history.
“ We’ve opened new stores before and always enjoyed a healthy interest in our company’s career opportunities – but we’ve never had a response like this.
“ And it wasn’t just the number of applicants but the quality too. It’s a shame we’re not opening more stores so we could give them all a job!”
GO Outdoors is now open at Portrack Retail Park in Stockton-on-Tees. And the official store opening celebrations take place on Saturday 28th March from 9am. Bouncy castle, fairground ride, face painting, belly dancers and sensational trial bicycle rider demonstrations – all in store!
The Mayor of Stockon-on-Tees will be crowning teenage downhill mountain bike rider Danny Hart as the Teesside Outdoor Adventurer of the year at around midday.
Filed under: GO Outdoors
