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downsmail.co.uk Andy is new man at The Mall RETAILING is in the blood of Andy Davy, the new manager of The Mall, in Maidstone.
As a Saturday boy in his local branch ofWHSmith in Eastbourne, he decided not to follow his peers to univer- sity, but in- stead to work his way up the ranks in store man- agement – a move that saw him stay with the sta- tionery chain for 27
Andy Davy
years. He said: “WH Smith had a fabu-
lous training system and it enabled me to work in a variety of loca- tions.” However, Andy (52) has man-
aged to keep his feet firmly south of the north-south divide, living for 20 years in Petersfield, Hampshire, prior to taking up his Maidstone post.
Having spent a lifetime commut-
ing, Andy has chosen to live in St Leonards-on-Sea, near Hastings – a “mere hour’s commute” to Maid- stone and 20 minutes to his beloved fishing boat, which is moored in Eastbourne. He said: “I worked for The Mall
group before and knew the chal- lenges lay ahead in Maidstone and what the group had in mind. But I also saw it as a chance to move back east and restore some of my work/life balance.” Andy’s wife Cathy has taken a job at a store in Tunbridge Wells,
but he said: “An hour is the short- est commute I have ever had. At one point, I was driving to Uxbridge along the M3 and M25 – which could take two-and-a-half hours eachway.” After 27 years with WH Smith
and three years in management for Homebase, Andy joined The Mall group in 2008, initially working in Southampton. He said: “It’s a great company to
work for. I have far more accounta- bility and autonomy here than any-
where else.” As well as taking his boat out to
sea, Andy enjoys walking his two dogs – a Westie and a Tibetan ter- rier.
He and his wife also love deep-
sea diving. Both are PADI-qualified rescue divers and take part in a “reef clean-up” in the Red Sea each February. Andy’s ambition now is to shark
dive in the Bahamas, or the waters around the Galapagos Islands. Back on dry land, he’s in charge
of a shopping centre worth £80m and a working budget of £2.5m a year.
But, as a man well used to sur-
viving in choppywaters, the future of The Mall looks like it’s in safe hands. He said: “Maidstone is a lovely
town and there are a lot of people trying to do a lot of good things. There is some fantastic stuff going on. It just needs a strategic, more co-ordinated approach to make this the best county town.”
£4m faceli plan for shopping centre Continued from page one
where a large planning applica- tion was refused but might go to appeal. Mr Davy revealed that The
Mall had 80,000sqft of vacant space available at present – equivalent to the space required at Newnham Court by the key department store. He said: “The long-term plans
for The Mall depend on what does or does not happen at J7.” But he revealed that whatever
the outcome, the town centre would not be standing still. He said: “We have three plans
in place – short, medium and long-term. At the present time, we don’t know which route we will take.” He said only leases of up to two
years were now being granted. “If the Newnham Court redevel- opment does not go ahead, we want to be in a position to react
Day centre manager Sue ‘will be missed’
SUE Tallowin has stood down as manager of Maidstone Day Centre after 10 years.
Her dedication will be missed by the homeless who use the centre in Knightrider Street and the team that sup- ported her, says the Homeless Care char- ity, which runs the centre. Trustee Angela Clay said: “Sue made
her mark and will be greatly missed.”
Succeeding Sue, who is pictured, as manager is Polish-born Zofia
26 Malling September 2014
Grzymala. Angela said: “Zofia is experienced, enthusiastic and ex- cited about the challenges of this increasingly busy time for us.” Also leaving is Adam Dyer, who organised much of the charity’s Food for Thought operation, which distributes donated food from traders and supermarkets to those in need. He has been re- placed by Mike Philps.
The day centre, which provides breakfast, a shower and fresh clothes for the town’s “rough sleepers”, says in future those using the service may be given particular times to call to cope with increased demand.
The charity also runs a 10-bed hostel at Godsell House in the cen- tre of town and Maidstone Chris- tian Care.
quickly. Maidstone needs Debenhams – it is the missing de- partment store.” Another factor in Maidstone’s
future was the recent takeover of Aviva’s stake in The Mall shop- ping centre chain by Capital & Regional, which had resulted in a huge pot of money being made available to invest in its six cen- tres across the country. The first £4m to be spent in Maidstone would start in January in a year-long improvement plan. A planning application was
due to be submitted this month for two new entrances – in King Street and Gabriels Hill – which would form part of a mid-term plan to redevelop the western end of The Mall and the former TJ Hughes site, creating space for two department stores, said Mr Davy. He said: “Without a doubt, the centre is out of date. It hasn’t had
money spent on it in a long time.” But he assured: “It will always
be a community mall, with inde- pendent retailers – that formula will not change. We may have different anchor retailers but there will always be independent traders.” A major £100m overhaul – to include housing and parking – as revealed by Capital & Regional six months ago, was still 10 to15 years away, said Mr Davy, but he added: “The major plan is chang- ing all the time, but one thing is certain –we are absolutely deter- mined to be part of Maidstone in the future.” A spokesman for Land Se- curities said the landowner was yet to decide whether it would appeal against Maidstone Coun- cil’s decision to refuse planning permission for the large retail scheme at Newnham Court.
Crop of berry experts grows
A CALIFORNIAN family- owned fruit company has more than doubled the size of its op- erations at East Malling Re- search.
Strawberry research expert Driscoll's Genetics has in- creased its space from 2,500ft2 to 5,400ft2. The 500-acre park- land estate is owned by East Malling Trust, the UK’s largest independent funder of horticul- tural research. Dr Carlos Fear, the firm’s di- rector of plant breeding and va- riety development, said: “East Malling has provided a com- pany like ours with an ideal place to bring its research or- ganisation. Not only is it an
FREE
easy gateway for travel to the rest of Europe, but it provides the facilities we require such as laboratories, offices, glasshouses and a site for field trials.”
In addition to the scientific work undertaken at East Malling Research, the estate is also home to English Apples and Pears, the organisation which champions UK growers. Other companies based on teh estate include Evogro, the high- tech plant growing equipment company; specialist market re- search OMB Research, and seis- mic and drilling advisers Zebra Geosciences and Zebra Data- sciences.
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