sales assistant

warehouse/driver

driver assistant

warehouse worker

showroom manager

City-Plumbing-Supplies

Showrooms are embarrassingly small with a very limited range of products. Everything is focused on plumbers, traders and building new accounts. Cold calling is expected in large numbers, but is an outdated and unproductive system. Upper/area management are not in touch with showroom life or reality coupled with selective hearing and prone to intimidating and bullying behaviour if your figures are not great, focusing only on their bonuses. Brown nose culture. Support is non existant and futile. Showroom Manager is a very misleading title. There is very little to manage. Salary has a decent basic, but bonuses are very uninspiring. One full day off on Sundays, and then 2 half days in the week, which creates a feeling of continuing to be at work. Big staff turnover. Long days, 7.30-8am start, 1 hour lunch (too long), 5pm finish. Could be a great company to work for if they were more selective with their management choices and understood their market and people in general. Soul destroying and uninspiring. Getting the job is very easy. Interview process is conducted by people who don't know or understand showrooms. Leaving the job is very difficult. 3 months notice. Make you sign agreement not to work for a rival/similar company for 6 months or within 50 mile radius. Of course its unenforceable.  They have a lot of work to do with their showrooms, lower/middle management and processes. Not a job for life. Just maybe a stop gap/experience builder on how not to run a showroom. Take what you can from the position, because it will give you very little back.

I had mixed feelings about City Plumbing. The team were always friendly, professional, and respectful, with no signs of toxicity. However, the work‑from‑home and hot‑desking culture made it difficult to build relationships, and the office felt too quiet. With no permanent desks and limited face‑to‑face interaction, it was hard to get to know colleagues, and phone calls had to be taken in corridors or pods, which added to the overall disconnect.

Getting anything done was a challenge. There was little urgency, slow pace across teams, and limited cross‑department communication, which felt out of place given how genuinely nice the people were. Overall, it’s very mismanaged and the managers and senior leaders move roles frequently. 

I also had a personal disappointment during my time there. After a great team‑building day with food and bowling that made me feel welcome, I was told a few days later that my role was being terminated due to business performance. Having only been with City Plumbing for three and a half months, it left me frustrated and questioning why the role was created in the first place. I would suggest the slow-paced culture is the reason for business performance being down. There isn’t any job security at City Plumbing. 


What is the best part of working at the company?
CPS has many wonderful and talented people at all levels. They are very kind,  welcoming and supportive. And they work together as 'big' team. I thoroughly enjoyed working with them. Leaders there always made time for me, they willingly filled in my knowledge gaps about their company, and its core operations. 

It is a progressive business, committed to giving its customers the best services possible. To this end it is tranforming its e2e IT capabilities with an ambitious programme that is driven by a very clear business strategy. 



What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
My only frustrations were down to my own knowledge gaps. And as I have previously said, the 'whole team' helped me to close them. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
It's a mix of offices, distribution centres, and branches across the UK. And I've already explained that its culture is warm, welcoming and helpful. It is commited to great customer service, and this invariably extends to its  internal operations.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Busy, challenging, enjoyable, and ultimately rewarding.

Typical Day

Typically my day would include a daily review of the condition of the branch, a review of the performance to date, a review meeting with staff and a daily 10 minute meeting to lay out the focus for the day and week going forward. 

During the day I would meet suppliers, customers and other company officials and based on these meetings I would then amend and develop existing plans to satisfy any resulting requirements.

What I've Learnt

The biggest lesson I have learned is how to motivate individuals and gain engagement. 

Management

Supportive, Open Minded, Challenging.

Co-Workers

Just one big very capable family

Hardest Part of the Job

Finding a way to achieve a goal when the cards looked stacked against you.

Most Enjoyable Part of the Job.

Periodically looking back on what has been achieved as it never ceases to amaze me just we what manage to achieve when you never give in, break things down and eat the proverbial elephant.

Job ok when dealing with retail customers only, of which there are not many in my experience, usually a tradesman's customer sent in by them to choose product.

If a tradesman gets involved who knows how to work the city plumbing system, he or the customer can go via trade the desk for a ''trade deal''  so you do not make bonus/commission... so beware this happens often !!

You are only paid commission or bonus as they call it, through a showroom brochure sale at a certain margin, so again a bit of a negative as tradesmen and customers usually want to purchase products not contained within the brochure.

Its your job to sell the brochure products only and at an increased margin compared to the trade desk in the same building!

Due to a lack of staff you are asked to cover the trade counter constantly.

They don't make that clear at the interview either !


I did not find this experience worthwhile and felt like it was a waste of my considerable experience and effort.

A very negative work experience in my opinion and so glad to be an ex employee.

A typical day consisted of daily intake of goods of £250,000 - £500,00, this brought usual challenges including Inventory, space and resource issues. I learned decisions can be made using the experience from all colleagues. This management method encourages all colleagues to buy into the challenges and the resolution of these challenges. Similar challenges were similarly  encountered on the goods out and loading shifts. Like anywhere the majority of colleagues are engaging, supportive and cooperative. 
The hardest part of my job was to stay within budget even when throughput would be tracking at +21%.
Working with people who in the main worked towards the same objective.

Conclusion:
PTS - Plumbing Trade Supplies were an excellent company, I spent 12 good years. The company grew at a realistic rate, the growth brought about interest from Travis Perkins. Unfortunately this meant PTS was purchased and Travis Perkins began to dismantle the foundations, ethics and very reason PTS was successful.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Fair pay. Great supportive, family feel, colleagues. Safety is a real priority that you don't see in other companies. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Keeping up with the customers. Have to forward think as they often believe you know everything. Think outside the box and find a solution is key to this role.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Very supportive. We have colleagues in other branches you can call if you have an issue or need help. Everyone if on hand and willing.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Open up, serve at the counter, do the daily walk around, talk to the team about today's priorities, check if anyone needs anything. Have open dialogue about the enquiries and orders coming through with the colleagues to make sure nothing is missed. Have lunch. Make sure we check the purchase orders are put through without delay. Making sure phone calls are taken. Picking orders and loading the van. Lots more but the jobs tend to be shared.

My typical day at City Plumbing Supplies involves me standing at the trade counter and interacting with our trade customers, processing order and resolving problems I also spend a considerable amount of the day implementing ways of generating sales.
 -As I've studied plumbing to a NVQ Level 2 standard and would like to work in the sector I find that talking to trade customers gives me an insight into how the sector operates.
-My management has been very supportive of me since I've been at the branch which is what I expect.
- And as for my co-worker we've had a few misunderstandings and clashes over some issue but overall they're pretty helpful.
-The hardest part of my day is dealing with problems that arise from customer orders and of course persuading new customers to use City Plumbing Supplies.
The most enjoyable part of my day is seeing customers who I've taken from an enquiry stage and talking them into placing an order through my showroom.

A typical day for me at PTS involves answering telephone calls which are predominantly from PTS branches (they have 300 branches nationwide) and dealing with incoming emails/faxes etc. I am the Contracts Manager and am responsible for ensuring we provide a reliable and efficient service to our customers, branches and manufacturers.

I have been at PTS for almost six-years and achieved two promotions during my time there. We are a small office (there is 12 of us) and having worked together for several years now everyone gets along well and morale is good.

The most challenging part of the job is returning customers' quotations back to them when requested as some can be quite demanding but I enjoy this. I relish organising and prioritising the workload and believe that good communication is crucial to a successful business.

Alot is expected as a BM at CPS and you are expected to forfil a number of  tasks taking you away from the real reason you are there which is driving sales forward and looking after the TRADE CUSTOMERS. With all of the tedious tasks that we had to do most of them were not needed. No real support for the managers your just left to do the job while upper management take credit for you and your teams accomplishments. The upper management DO NOT recognise genuine illness and make every member of staff feel guilty for having an hour to go out. The work load is alot however its manageable but DO NOT share your loads because at the end of the day the BM is completely responsible for all of the team even if your not there. Also a consistent change of upper management leaving other members of staff unsure about the future of the business. 

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Sales assistant 41 salaries reported	£13.35 per hour
Warehouse/driver 30 salaries reported	£13.32 per hour
Driver assistant 29 salaries reported	£13.32 per hour
Warehouse worker 11 salaries reported	£13.32 per hour
Showroom manager 2 salaries reported	£30,000 per year

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