Matalan appoints Acorn to major training contract

Leading UK value retailer Matalan has appointed Wales's largest recruitment and training company Acorn to roll-out a major training programme across its stores.

Acorn, which is a specialist provider to the retail industry, has been appointed to lead the training programme across all its dozen stores in Wales.

It is part of a government-funded multi-million pounds investment in training by the retailer Matalan, which has also agreed contracts to outsource national vocational qualification training in its stores in England and Wales.

Sarah John, Commercial Director of Newport-based Acorn's Learning and Development Division, said, "This is one of the most prestigious retail training contracts to have become available in Wales this year.

"Our particular experience in the sector, coupled with ability to provide an all-Wales service, proved crucial factors in persuading Matalan to award us the contract. It means we will be the sole provider of NVQ training to more than 350 staff across Wales."

Qualifications to be offered will include FMA in retail, customer service, team leading, warehousing and administration, and AMA in management, retail, customer service,
administration and warehousing.

Jane Cousins, Senior Training & Development Manager at Matalan, said, "This is a significant investment in training by the group and we are delighted to have appointed Acorn to undertake the contract across our Wales stores.

"We were very impressed with the Acorn team and its experience. The retail industry is a key employer in the UK and we recognise that to attract and retain the best staff, we need to invest heavily in their skills and learning."

Matalan is the UK's first national value retailer and recently opened its 200th store in Croydon.  Its stores in Wales include Swansea, Bangor, Cardiff, Cwmbran and Llantrisant.

The group was founded by John Hargreaves, who discovered the out of town retail US concept that sold a range of food and non-food products at low prices in the 1970's.

In 1985 the first Matalan store opened in Preston. Since then Matalan has grown significantly and by 1995 there were 50 stores across the UK. In 1997, in order to cope with Matalan's growth, the H/O was relocated from Preston to Skelmersdale along with a new distribution centre. Matalan now trades from 5 million square feet.