Ensuring our assets enhance the communities in which they are located through tenant and community engagement is one of three key pillars of our Sustainability Strategy. At our larger sites which have Centre Managers, we actively empower and encourage our site teams to engage positively with the local communities in which the assets are based.
In the Q&A article below we interview one of our Centre Managers, Simon Whiting, from our Willow Brook site in Bradley Stoke. Simon and the team at Willow Brook have helped to develop and establish a range of community engagement initiatives and partnerships with local stakeholders, making Willow Brook an important social hub and creating a long lasting impact in the community it serves. We are pleased to be able to put a spotlight on Simon’s community leadership and the positive impact being created at Willow Brook.
What is your role at Willow Brook Shopping Centre?
I am the Willow Brook centre manager. I am responsible for the day to day running of the centre as well feeding into the strategic development of the scheme with our wider team. I am the face and ambassador for all things Willow Brook.
What is your favourite part of your job?
Engaging and interacting with people at the centre, this could be customers, tenants, the centre management team, external stakeholders, the local authority, contractors, the list goes on. I am a very people orientated centre manager and shopping centre management lends itself to be able to fully embrace this skill. Through my role at Willow Brook, I am able to-make positive impacts on people’s lives within the community. Not many jobs put you in a position where you are able to do this, I am truly fortunate.
How do you interact with and support the Centre’s tenants?
I have always been a tenant centric manager. Our occupiers are at the core of everything we are trying to do. I have established quarterly tenant meetings that are quickly becoming an open forum for our tenants to put forward opinions and views. We have recently moved away from the board room environment for these meeting and instead meet outside and walk around and talk. The Centre Team visit tenants and afford them the opportunity to talk about their offer. It is important to recognise that tenant interaction is just that, it’s a two – way dialogue. Standing in front of everyone presenting is useful, but the real win is allowing these meetings to be free flowing and engaging. Additionally, I conduct monthly 1-2-1 meetings and run a series of “Tenant Talks”. These tenant talks are a social media blog where I sit down with a tenant and discuss their role at Willow Brook and their narrative. So far, with tenants, we have discussed and published pieces on community value, women’s involvement in sport and the fitness industry and the ever-evolving culture around health and well-being. These posts are featured on our social channels as well as shared internally.
I try to be as visible as possible and always make sure to move about the centre in a way that gets me seen. I speak with as many tenants as I am able too daily and always reconfirm that the team is always on hand to help where needed.
In what ways does your work impact the local community?
I am grateful to be able to get involved with numerous community initiatives. A centre manager has a stage to use his or her voice and this is something I take seriously. Shopping centres, like Willow Brook, are more than a destination to pick up your weekly groceries, if positioned correctly they are community hubs, and this is true at Willow Brook.
I have a special relationship with The Brightwell, a neurological therapy centre and Willow Brook’s neighbour, as a centre we do a lot of fundraising and awareness pieces for the Brightwell. I ran the London Half Marathon for The Brightwell and Willow Brook has sponsored and participated in the annual Brightwell Paint Run. Having witnessed first hand and met the amazing people at The Brightwell, I met with an overwhelming desire to help where I can.
What environmental and social impact activities do you have planned for 2024?
I sit on the South Gloucestershire Council Skills and Learning advisory board and am getting involved in several initiatives aimed at guiding NEET (not in education, employment, or training) school leavers into productive roles within society.
We are also moving towards some exciting environmental initiatives and recently, in partnership with SUPR, the site underwent a biodiversity baseline and enhancement assessment to help us identify areas of potential growth (pun intended) within Willow Brooks landscaping. These assessments further demonstrate Willow Brooks commitment to our community and our locations sustainability aspirations.
