Leeds locals have really dug deep into their pockets and helped Town Centre Securities (TCS) raise an amazing £20,000 for The Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal.
For the first time ever, the directors from TCS’s, Merrion Centre owners, swapped the board room for the shop floor in an effort to raise money for the Poppy Appeal. Four directors took it in turns to run and manage a stall selling a range of Poppy merchandise to shoppers, including brooches, key rings, bags and cufflinks. They each had a team of nine TCS members of staff and three days to sell.
Edward Ziff, Chairman and Chief Executive of TCS and his sales squad came out on top, taking £3,471. Combined with the money raised from the other teams, resulted in a grand total of £12,724 for the Pop-Up Poppy Shop Stand.
Edward Ziff commented; “What better way to encourage sales entrepreneurship and boost staff morale, than a little bit of healthy rivalry. The competition, set up by my daughter Charlotte-Daisy who thankfully was part of my team, was to see who could sell the most, but what really inspired us, was the desire to raise as much money as possible for such a worthy charity. We hope we can join forces with the Poppy Shop again and raise even more money, hopefully my team will be triumphant again next year!”
In addition to the special Poppy Shop Stand and collection tins at the stall, Poppy Sellers spent 12 days in the Centre collecting donations from shoppers in exchange for the classic paper poppy.This combined with the directors money raising efforts, pushed the overall Merrion Centre contribution to over £20,000.
Holly Bannister-Haynes, Poppy Shop Retail Sales Manager, comments; “This is the first time the Merrion Centre has had a Pop-Up Poppy Shop Stand and we can’t thank them enough for manning the stores. The shoppers have been so generous and we are delighted with the amount raised. The Merrion Centre’s contribution to the Poppy Appeal is comparable to some of the larger shopping centres in the UK, a great achievement for Leeds.”
