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Shopping Centre Manager Celebrates 1st Year Anniversary

Shopping Centre Manager, Karen Cox

Karen Cox, Centre Manager of the Spinning Gate Shopping Centre in Leigh is celebrating her first year anniversary in post.

Karen has been in the Shopping Centre industry for over 20 years, when her career began as Centre Administrator at The Galleries Shopping Centre in Wigan. Karen enjoyed a number of roles and successes during her time at The Galleries, having achieved a number of national marketing awards. After a successful career in shopping centre management in her home town, Karen was appointed Events Manager at intu Trafford Centre, where she had sole responsibility for the annual events program. Following this post, Karen then took up a position as Business Support Manager at intu Trafford Centre, forming a brand new department which provided support to the 15 operational departments on site. Having successfully formed the Business Support team, it was then time for her next career move; managing the Spinning Gate Shopping Centre which Karen took up position as CM 12 months ago.

Spinning Gate Shopping Centre comprises of 110,000sq of retail space in Leigh Town Centre with 40 retail units contained within the ground floor mall. The shopping centre is active on social media, with almost 8k followers on Facebook and 3k followers on Twitter . The centre has recently introduced Instagram to add to its social media platforms and is benefitting from showcasing the centre and its retail partners too.

Karen said “The past 12 months have gone so quickly, it feels like only yesterday since my first day on site! With Christmas around the corner, we will shortly be sharing the details of our Christmas campaign along with details of our new Christmas decorations too. Retail is an ever evolving environment and we are really excited to see what the next year will bring.”
We are really proud to announce that Spinning Gate has recently been shortlisted for a Green Apple Award, an international campaign to recognise, reward and promote environmental best practice for its waste management processes, achieving 100% diversion from waste during 2017.


During Karen’s first year at Spinning Gate, the centre has welcomed two new retail partners: The Works, Hers and Sirs hairdressing salon who are both enjoying success. The centre has been shortlisted for an environmental award, upgraded its centres control room, undertaken external refurbishment, appointed numerous new contractors along with rebranding of the centres security and cleaning staff uniform.

During December, the centre provided shoppers with lots of smile moments with their 12 days of Christmas campaign: giving out treats to shoppers to thank them for shopping in centre. The centre celebrated the Royal Wedding in style with its selfie station, provided romantic roaming romeos handing out chocolates to shoppers as a Valentines Day treat. As a sweet treat for Father’s Day, the centre provided two superheroes who handed out superhero sweets. The centre celebrated summer with its fabulous Summer Garden a 3 week summer event providing free entertainment during the school holidays which was enjoyed by thousands of children. The centre is undergoing a rebranding exercise, adopting its new logo and branding across all signage.

Karen has also enjoyed providing support to the local HITZ program by conducting mock interviews with the learners attending the program.

In her spare time, Karen enjoys travelling, having recently returned from Majorca, she also enjoys retail therapy, walking, swimming, gardening and has a penchant for afternoon teas and can often be found sourcing the boroughs best afternoon tea treats!