Testimonials

We engaged Skylines to complete a review of our charity retail business, both bricks and mortar and online. Despite the tight deadline we set them, they were really accommodating and thorough, and presented their findings honestly and informatively - highlighting quick wins and long-term solutions. They offered very practical advice which has benefitted our business.

Sarah Naismith

Income & Engagement Director North West Air Ambulance

We would want to say that our investment in support from Skyline has undoubtedly put us in a position post covid lockdowns to come back with a stronger more profitable retail offer.

Paul Brinley

Cornwall Hospice

Barry Moles delivered the Skyline Commercial Training for Charity Shops to our full team of Managers and Assistant Managers. The day was informative, fun and covered several key areas which kept interest levels high. The feedback we received was the most positive I have heard for many years with long serving Managers taking fundamental action to improve sales and gift aid as a direct response to what they had learnt.

Anne Edge

Director of HR & Trading, Hope House Children's Hospices

Skyline not only put the business on a sound footing but produced a first-class strategy for the next 5 years (some of which has already been implemented) to ensure future growth and profitability. The business has been transformed. If you want a real in-depth knowledge of Charity Retail, coupled with the leadership skills to turn around a charity business and like a totally honest approach then I would, without hesitation, recommend Skyline. It has been a pleasure to work with them.

Roy Leason

Trustee. St Catherine Hospice

I highly recommend Skyline to any charity looking to unlock the full potential of its retail portfolio. Skyline's knowledge and expertise in Charity Retail is unparalleled. Their Skyline Health Check proved invaluable in identifying areas for improvement while highlighting both quick wins and longer-term solutions to help increase revenue and profitability. Additionally, Skyline provided commercial training to our retail staff, which has put us in a great position to pursue our ambitious growth strategy.

Lorraine Pink

Director of Income Generation St Michaels Hospice

It is with great pleasure to thank Barry and the team at Skyline Business Services for the work they carried out for Willowburn Hospice, the recommendation came from another hospice and we cannot be more pleased with the outcome of the time spent working with Skyline. Moving forward into 2018, our plans are to start working on the information which Barry has supported in preparing a plan. This is a great step for retail for the hospice and we look forward to making some changes to strengthen our retail operation.

Katherine Luke

Income Generation Manager, Willowburn Hospice

We had a full days training with the managers of both hospice’s which me and fellow CEO attended. The training day was very specific to maximise the main areas of weakness. Barry was a motivational high energy trainer who certainly made the session into an interactive highly charged event with lots of fun.

Maureen Thompson

CEO, Teesside Hospice Care Foundation

Over the last six years we had organically grown and developed our retail offering and had reached a cross roads in terms of where we went next. We needed to develop a new retail strategy to support us in continuing to grow our voluntary income, however we didn’t feel we had the expertise and knowledge in house to do this effectively. We reached out to the Charity Retail Association members looking for recommendations of suitable partners that could support us with developing our strategy and Skyline’s name kept coming up and so we made contact and the rest is history as they say! The health check they conducted was very in depth and covered all areas and they then presented their findings both verbally and also via an in-depth report. This was very enlightening and certainly highlighted some key areas for development. The report was very useful in that it outlined the changes we needed to make and equated these changes to financial reward and also areas of prioritization. We then worked closely with the team to take the findings and develop this into a five year strategy that would allow us to grow our income by £500,000. The strategy was very clear and easy to follow in terms of what we needed to do and when and also the financial gains attached to the activity and also any associated costs. .

Alison Stallard-Jones

Head of Income Generation and Marketing , Hospice of the Valleys

I always enjoy working with Skyline they are refreshingly honest, good at engaging the teams they work with and most importantly consistently deliver outstanding results. Their knowledge of charity retail is exceptional, and they are equally comfortable on advisory and delivery. I would have no hesitation on strongly recommending Skyline to any charity.

Kate Bull

Executive Director Royal Voluntary Service

I would not hesitate to recommend Skyline to any charity, especially the Skyline Health Check and commercial training. I have found the Skyline team very professional, highly knowledgeable, supportive and they have helped us resolve some inherent long-term challenges leaving us in a good place to take retail forward.

Alpana Malde

CEO, St Luke’s Hospice

Skyline do what they promise! If you need a critical review of your retail operations to support improvement and expansion you will not be disappointed. Skyline’s knowledge, advice and guidance has helped us to identify key issues, prioritise and implement changes with quick income raising results. The training programme has sustainably empowered our retail team and we know how we want to train and develop new recruits to enable our growth plans.

We move forward knowing that we understand our retail business and we can deliver our development strategy ambitions.

Suzanne Carr

CEO, Age Concern Central Lancashire

Skyline have an in-depth knowledge and wealth of experience of Charity Retail. They use this knowledge to work with your team and create a vision for your retail business, and then help you deliver it. At Royal Trinity Hospice they demonstrated exceptional leadership, to initially fully engage and then lead the team and key stakeholders, through a programme of operational and cultural change. The achievements made over the course of a year were well above our expectations. I can strongly recommend Skyline.

Dallas Pounds

CEO, Royal Trinity Hospice

Addaction commissioned Skyline to review its wholly-owned social enterprise Resource, devise a turnaround strategy and implement the resulting plan. Skyline rapidly analysed the business, made a series of clear recommendations and supported the local team to drive sales growth and manage costs. During this period of change, Skyline also helped generate an increase in staff morale. This is testament to the excellent input from Steve in particular who has demonstrated in-depth retail know-how, excellent engagement and very clear communication with myself, the Resource Board and the Addaction Executive team. I would have no hesitation in recommending Skyline to other charities and social enterprises, whose consultancy input has really helped put Resource on a much firmer footing for the future.

Ian Merrill

Executive Director of Income & Commercial Development, Addaction

I have found Skyline to be professional, responsive and straightforward to work with, I have no hesitation in recommending Skyline. The Health Check and Strategic Review have proved to be value for money and have certainly focused the hospice team.

Maureen Thompson

CEO, Teesside Hospice Care Foundation

Guild Care worked closely with SKYLINE for 2 years helping us realise the potential of all our charity shops – including the opening of a new Charity Superstore!

Suzanne Millard

CEO, Guild Care

Skyline were able to step in to help us when we had a critical gap in our retail management staffing. This was a straightforward choice for us as it was very clear from our initial meeting that the team at Skyline were very knowledgeable about and expert in the charity retail sector. Through the turnkey solution, Skyline were able to quickly pick up full responsibility for our retail operations. Keen to bring clear added value to the process, Skyline completed a full health check of our operations immediately prior to commencing the turnkey solution and as a result were therefore able to begin to implement the recommendations and changes arising from the health check as part of the turnkey solution.

Barry and his team ensured we were fully informed, appraised and updated throughout the tenure of the turnkey. I particularly welcomed the straightforward and honest discussion and analysis that was given during our meetings. The existing strengths of our retail operations were fully acknowledged and recognised alongside the identification of the key areas where we could further improve our performance – a truly balanced and pragmatic approach to the appraisal of our retail business, which was very refreshing.

The lead retail consultant on the ground engaged very effectively with our shop managers and facilitated change in a very supportive and consultative way. We established very effective partnership working with Skyline which helped us immeasurably as a charity. Their input delivered a very effective injection of re-engagement, motivation and development for our retail team which has achieved positive results.

Colin Loy

Acting CEO / Director of Finance and Income Generation

We have worked with Skyline on a couple of projects the first being the relocation of our warehouse and furniture store to a much larger site and secondly, they performed a retail health check across our business. The Skyline team have a huge amount of charity retail knowledge and were hugely insightful They were very professional, yet sensitive to the needs of a team of staff and volunteers. They worked in a very motivating and collegiate way. Not only did we have a large move to undertake, but a new shop, much larger shop to set up. With Skylines knowledge we swiftly developed new improved processes and ways of working. New processes were underpinned with cost saving and through Barry and Steve’s knowledge and connections we had new income opportunities opened to us to. The result a fantastic new shop, increased sales, an efficient warehouse and improved ecommerce. The health check clearly identified areas for improved performance and was presented clearly which meant we were able to start rolling out some of the actions quickly. We now have a clear plan to develop the business moving forward. To sum up, Skyline are professional, bring a wealth of experience in Retail, project management and ecommerce, they are easy to work with and I would thoroughly recommend them.

Sam Husband

Director of Finance & Performance, North Devon Hospice

“We had a full day workshop for staff and volunteers which for me was a real highlight, run by Barry and presented extremely professionally. Everyone went away motivated, understanding their achievements already, and ready to implement improvements” Jane Bradshaw CEO St Teresa’s Hospice

Jane Bradshaw

CEO St Teresa’s Hospice

We received extremely valuable guidance, support and training for all of the team, and they made the team including volunteers feel at ease throughout the week. The merchandising training was fantastic and will be taking this onboard and ensuring standards are maintained The team and I was involved with every step, and included in all discussions around the plans and agenda for the week. The information, knowledge and training we all received was fantastic and we all learnt so much. All the team were very approachable, and i felt i could ask any questions needed and have an input in everything.

Amanda

Retail Manager Age UK Durham

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