Jamie Denny is currently the Store Manager of Shaftesbury Superstore, North Dorset. Jamie describes his career journey from his time in the Royal Navy through to joining the Tesco store team.

After leaving school, Jamie joined the Royal Navy in 1999 aged 19 as a Mine Warfare specialist. Looking for a career where he could test himself and have a sense of belonging, he served on HMS Cottesmore and HMS Shoreham operating in a variety of locations from the coastline of the British Isles to the Arabian Gulf.

During this time, he developed many skills including technical job specific skills, along with sound communication and team work skills, and being a team player to enable to operational effectiveness.

For the last two years of his Naval career, he transferred and became a Naval Regulator upholding Naval discipline and investigating low level crime committed by armed forces personnel.

Following the birth of his eldest daughter he left the Royal Navy in 2005 after 6 years of service. After initially considering going into a career in building trade, he was told by a friend about opportunities at Tesco and saw an immediate link between his leadership skills developed during his time in the forces, and those required to be an influential figure in the stores network.

He joined Dorchester Superstore in January 2007, and immediately knew that this was the company for him, spotting the similarities between Tesco and the navy around firm leadership structure and strong teamwork ethos.

Within his first year at Tesco he went through an internal program to develop his potential which lead to him successfully being offered a Team Management role. He excelled in this role and was keen to continue his development so in 2010 he enrolled on a Foundation Degree in Retail Management at Manchester Metropolitan University, through Tesco. The course was two years distance learning, but regularly included study trips to Manchester, which gave him the opportunity to learn and to network with other Tesco colleagues.

After successfully graduating in 2012, he moved into the Convenience Store format, which gave him valuable experience in leading smaller teams, in a variety of diverse stores across Dorset. Returning to the Large Store format as a Store manager, he was appointed to the Portland Store, off the south coast of the UK. He says that managing Portland has been a career highlight as he used to live on the island, and it felt like he was giving something back to the local community. The Navy used to be based on Portland until the late 1990’s, so there is still a number of colleagues who have links to the forces and Jamie was able to use his background to really get to know the customer base and serve his customers in the best possible way.

He is now in charge of the Shaftesbury store where he faced into the challenges presented by the 2020 Covid pandemic, utilising his leadership experience to bring the best out of his team. He describes the experience as very rewarding because the stores team not only supported each other through a challenging time, but the store was a pillar of the local community, as it is the only large supermarket in the town. Jamie reflects on his time in Tesco. He says “when I first joined the business, I felt quite isolated as I was only aware of one or two other members of staff who were ex forces. However, over time, this changed, and I became aware of the internal Armed Forces Network. Currently I am focussing on leading the Armed Forces Network activity within my group. I want to further build the network and highlight key dates throughout the year including Armed Forces Day and Remembrance Sunday where we can actively promote Tesco as an employer of choice for people leaving the military.”