Alison Horner
Stores
Operations Director - Homeplus
Joined Tesco: January 1999
Right from the start, I found the people and atmosphere at Tesco to be down to earth, apolitical and professional.
Before joining Tesco, I was Head of Personnel for a privately-owned group of retail bakeries, and ready to take my skills and experience to a bigger stage. I was 38 weeks pregnant at my final interview, but no one seemed worried about it, which was really refreshing. My first job was as Regional Personnel Manager, and after 18 months, I was promoted to Personnel Director for the UK stores. Tesco helped us with the move from Cheshire to Hertfordshire, and more importantly, my husband left work to look after our two young children.
My big break came when I got the opportunity to lead Future, which is how Tesco manages change. After this experience, I wanted to retrain as a general manager. I received plenty of support to achieve this, starting out as a Store Manager at one of our Extra stores, then progressing to Stores Director. This involved a move to Derbyshire, and once again, Tesco's support was fantastic, including finding the right school for my children.
In 2006, I became Tesco's first female Operations Director. These days, I'm responsible for designing and running a new format for Tesco, Homeplus, which is a standalone non-food store. This involves working with teams across the UK business and spending lots of time listening to what our customers have to say about our trial stores. There are no rules, and I have complete freedom to influence how Homeplus develops. It's this part of my job that I enjoy most.
Find out more about Stores here.
