Heritage Colleague Spotlight - Paul, Head of Circular Communities

Welcome back to week four of our Heritage Colleague Spotlight mini-series, to celebrate our 40 years of stores milestone!

Our Heritage Colleague Spotlights shine a light on some of our amazing, long service colleagues, and how they have grown and evolved with us over the years. This week we chat to Paul Sullivan .

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Paul’s journey into the business:

In 2010, Paul was working for a large retailer when he saw an advert for Area Managers at Dunelm in the Sunday Times. Paul was immediately curious, and after a successful application he found himself responsible for 8 Dunelm stores in London and the South East. Paul says ‘It was amazing literally from day one. It was real retail. At my previous retailer, I simply felt like an auditor. I now had full control of my assigned stores and the teams, the headcount was huge, and I had lots of responsibilities. It felt like a fantastic step up.’

Paul stayed in this role for three years, accelerating his 8 stores to 12 in that time. Then came along his next challenge – Made to Measure.

Paul was approached by senior management about a concept of sending colleagues directly into customers’ homes, doing consultations and fitting work. It was immediately successful. Flash forward 10 years – it is a huge scale service that we offer and a pivotal part of the Dunelm identity, with 130 fitters across the UK. Paul reflects ‘Not only have our product offerings expanded, but the colleague network has expanded too. Made to Measure is its own department and team now, something that I helped to make happen.’

After 10 successful years growing our Made to Measure function, Paul recently took over as Head of Circular Communities, and we cannot wait to see how his success continues.

Reflecting on the past 14 years with Dunelm, Paul says his proudest moment is ‘seeing people that have worked for me progress – watching their careers flourish and grow. When I see colleagues that have worked for me getting recognition or promoted and having the opportunity to try new things, I find that really rewarding.’

We asked Paul what makes Dunelm your happy place?

‘It’s got to be that every day is different. There is so much variety. I love that I continually get to meet new people, and I am lucky enough that in the roles I’ve had I’ve had opportunities to meet people externally too through charities, partnerships, suppliers etc. This has meant I’ve been able to build a huge network, something I really value.

It’s definitely the people, first and foremost. But honestly, the business as a whole. The way we work, our amazing rewards and benefits – compared to other businesses, we offer so much. You also really have the ability to make a difference. You can just go for it if you’ve got the ideas’.

Having long-service colleagues like Paul has a huge impact on what Dunelm looks like today. Each week during this mini series, we will spotlight on a colleague’s experience with us – join us next week for #5!

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