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Today we are proud to publish our first standalone Sustainability Report for 2022, which highlights the progress made so far on our Pathway to Zero commitment The report outlines the actions we are taking to reach our ambitious targets of reducing carbon emissions, contributing to a circular economy and supporting our communities as well as highlighting our key plans moving forward. As a retailer with thousands of own label products and millions of customers we recognise the contribution we can make but also that this is the start of our journey, with much more to be done. Please follow the link below to read our report.
We're so excited that today, we are sharing our new employer brand with you. We really want to show everyone who we are; how we have an ambitious plan to keep growing by thinking long-term, how we empower our colleagues to take opportunities every day, and shine a spotlight on our caring, supportive and friendly atmosphere that our people have built and we are proud of. Our purpose is to help create the joy of truly feeling at home, and if home is your happy place, your job should feel like that too. We're inviting you to Find Your Happy Place. Thank you to everyone who helped us on this journey of discovery, especially our brilliant colleagues. From stores to sustainability, from tech to textiles, you are the beating heart of our business.
We’re on a mission to become a menopause friendly employer! We know that the menopause can be a trying time. Menopause symptoms cost women an average of 5 hours sleep per night, and a third of women affected by menopause say sleep loss is their most serious symptom and has the biggest life impact. Today marks the official launch of our MenopauZzz campaign for our colleagues and customers. Our campaign is backed by TV and radio presenter, Lisa Snowdon, who is a vocal advocate for the need for wider support for women going through pre-menopause and menopause. Through the campaign Lisa will provide sleep related menopause advice through awareness workshops, which are open to both customers and colleagues throughout the month of October. All attendees will also receive a money-off voucher to redeem against our products designed to help with menopause symptoms, such as cooling pillows and mattress protectors. We are also launching our Menopause Policy, Manager Guide and e-learning in October, to educate our colleagues on how to support those experiencing pre-menopause or menopause.
We have opportunities for Sales Assistants to join our in-store team. There are lots of great reasons to join us in-store, including regular hours and helpful benefits such as Salary Advance (access to your money to suit you) and discounts across a range of retailers. The caring and supportive culture we’ve created makes this a place you’ll feel right at home. And you’ll quickly discover it’s somewhere you could build a long-term career. Apply online and search by location for an opportunity near you.
Last week our graduates joined us at our Syston Support Centre for a week of inductions, networking, and getting to know everyone. Some of the highlights included: - Meeting our CEO Nick Wilkinson and the Exec board - Time with our previous graduate cohort to hear about their experiences - Visits to our Stoke Distribution Centre and Mock Shop - Meeting their new teams - An evening of Bowling and fun Our graduates will now spend two weeks in-store learning all about our store operations. We are delighted to welcome our new graduates into the business and wish them the best of luck on their journeys.
Gals Who Graduate collaboration A couple of weeks ago we launched our collaboration with Gals Who Graduate and its founder Bronte King. Gals Who Graduate offer supportive online communities for students and graduates to share their advice, stories and support for each other. This collaboration is in conjunction with the launch of our student campaign both online and in-store, which is made up of selected products for students to stamp their style on their uni rooms with eat, sleep and study essentials. The campaign shows Bronte, along with two members of the community (Olamide Majekodunmi and Jasmin Rahman) sharing their best tips and tricks around going to university, along with some fails along the way. Here is some behind the scenes images from the shoot day with our creative and social teams at our in-house photography studio.
New store alert 🚨💚 We are excited to share that our newly relocated Rugby store opened yesterday. This move has seen us leave our town centre location and take up home in Elliott’s Field Retail Park.🏡 We welcomed lots of loyal and new customers through the doors and celebrated with goody bags, gift cards, bacon rolls and golden tickets. There was also an opportunity for some local small businesses to join us and share their products. The opening of this store also sees the launch of our new, dedicated community colleague role. This role works directly with the local community, partnering with charities, helping with fundraising and will manage our local Dunelm community Facebook group for our customers. Well done to everyone who was involved in launching the new look Rugby store.
Yesterday saw the opening of our newly refurbished Stockton store. There has been a huge transformation happening over the last few months, from new a bedding concept to the new Pausa Kitchen Café. There has also a focus on community, with a board displaying information on small businesses, what we are doing to support the local community & opportunities to join us as a colleague in store. We're so proud of our colleagues and would like to say a huge thank you to everyone involved!
Having over 170 stores and over 9,000 colleagues across those stores, we want to be giving our leaders the knowledge to have conversations and support colleagues with their mental health. Following on from our mental health awareness training programme, we have decided to train all our Store Coaches in Mental Health First Aid. So far, we have completed training for four regions, with 60 Store Coaches, and plan to have everyone trained in the coming months. The session looks at stigma, discriminations, self-care, anxiety, depression, suicide, self-harm, eating disorders, psychosis, ongoing support and provides a number of tools to help support our colleagues with their mental health.
We are announcing the launch of our Conscious Choice homeware collection. The collection will support our customers to make more thoughtful purchasing decisions and make it easier for them to find homewares that have a reduced environmental impact, compared to some other products available in Dunelm. The initial launch consists of over 800 items spanning bathroom, bedroom, and kitchen products, in addition to children’s homeware pieces, accessories, and decorative items. All Conscious Choice products will meet our sustainability driven criteria, from the materials used to make them to the anticipated length of the product’s life once it reaches a customer’s home. The Conscious Choice collection will continue to evolve as better technology and increased innovation enables the introduction of additional sustainable practices. These developments will see Conscious Choice extended into new categories within the our product offer as well as increased numbers of individual products within the launch categories.
