Welcome to our latest St. Pierre’s partner feature!
Today we’re in New Plymouth, in the beautiful Taranaki region, visiting Sooin. Originally from near Seoul in South Korea, Sooin has been in NZ for 18 years, since coming here for high school. He has had a fascinating career with St. Pierre’s – read on!
“After graduating from university in Auckland, I did a range of jobs before starting with St. Pierre’s six years ago. I started out at Silverdale shop, and the partner there, Shinya, was brilliant. He encouraged me to aim high and helped me understand I could have a great career here. After that, I worked at St. Luke’s, Westgate – where I trained under the current partner Takashi – and then became manager at Lincoln Road.
Working at lots of different shops was really valuable. It helped me understand how to work with people with diverse personalities and motivations, and to solve the challenges in rostering small and large shops. I also got to understand how different good managers work, and I formed a clear vision of how I wanted to run the shop when I became a manager. That and, having worked at St. Luke’s – our shops with the highest sales week after week – I wanted to take my own shop to number one!”
The chance to put that competitive streak to the test came when the New Plymouth shop partnership became vacant in early 2022. Sooin was ready for his next challenge!
“Founding partner James did a great job of opening the shop and building a team, but I wanted to take it to the next level. My goal was simple: be number one in NZ in weekly sales. Beating St. Luke’s – a big mall shop – and Newmarket Eatery – which has three departments – would not be easy, but we did it several times in my first year!”
This sense of ambition has clearly rubbed off on Sooin’s team, who consistently achieve high customer satisfaction and bonus performance.
“Our team are really good at doing the little extras well. They all recognise our regular customers and learn their names, and we are always trying things like free samples for first-time customers. We’ve also built a strong following locally for sushi platters. If someone is having a party, we serve the food in a Japanese sushi boat, which has become famous locally.
It comes back to setting high goals and getting the team to buy into them. When people know the little things they do feed into larger achievements, it really helps their motivation. And as well as helping them aim high with me, it makes them realise they are part of a much bigger St. Pierre’s family, which is easy to forget when the closest shop is so far away.”
Building a high-performing team takes many forms, from day-to-day operations to team building events.
“I put a lot of effort into training. For example, I’ve train all our bento staff to sell sushi and vice versa, so whoever talks to a customer first can help them. It makes people happy that whoever they say hi to is ready to help, and it makes rostering easier. I make sure to have regular chats with staff about how they are feeling, and review their wages up whenever I can. Ultimately, retaining experienced and motivated staff is the best way to keep the shop performing well.
The shop is busy, but it’s important to take a moment to celebrate our achievements. I lay on a big dinner at every second or third bonus meeting to say thanks. We have serious discussions about how we are performing, yes, but at least 1/3 of the meeting time is just relaxing together and enjoying each other’s company over dinner or snacks. When the team knows and respects each other, every day goes smoother.”
Finally, Sooin has bought into the relaxed Taranaki lifestyle.
“There are so many good things about living in New Plymouth. I love animals, and we have a big German Shepherd, who is so loyal and fun. There’s so much space to take him for walks here, I love it. We also have rabbits, so my partner and I appreciate the extra space in provincial houses. So even though I had lived in Auckland for years, I had wanted to be a shop partner for a while and knew this was a good place to live, so I was happy to move.”
Sooin is justifiably proud of his journey and achievements, but there is still plenty more to come. He has taken a good shop and made it one of our best performers by building a strong team and always innovating. At St. Pierre’s, we’re proud to have amazing people like him! Sooin personifies our culture of being “people first”, supporting each other and celebrating success. Next time you’re in New Plymouth, drop by the Gover Street shop to say hi – and here’s to everyone across the St. Pierre’s Group aiming high!
