Area Manager
Vue Cinemas

Bobby S

00:01 My name is Bobby S and I am an area manager for VUE Entertainment. Overall I have 11 cinemas so starting from Birmingham out to Oxford, all the way down to Plymouth and then across to Swansea and that totals around 150 screens altogether.

00:19 I suppose my role is sort of 50% you know managing downwards and around 50% managing upwards. The downwards part is just making sure that you know we have the right tools the right planning and the right execution in place. We’re delivering the right standard front of house, but we’re also you know meeting our financial and commercial targets as well as, you know meeting our customer satisfaction levels.

00:42 The managing up part of that is being involved in you know shaping and driving the strategy for operations and also the business, so you know working with the exec team in trying new innovations and, and you know trying new things.

00:57 School was enjoyable I went to school in London, I spent part of my childhood living with my eldest brother in Surrey, I went to a grammar school there. Again driven by my parents trying to keep me out of trouble and making sure I got a good education and a good start. With the culture of, you know being Asian there’s always a really high expectation for you know for the children to go into medicine, accountancy or science.

01:26 I came back to the midlands in around 84 and you know lived with my parents, it was good it was fun, I was head boy that was interesting but I think it was you know a bit too, bit too confined for me, wanted to like spread my wings a little bit.

01:47 I think given that my oldest brother had done his doctorate in physics it was sort of pushed that way but they were strengths for me as well and you know I was quite good at you know French and German and I enjoyed my languages. And you know having had the opportunity to go across to Europe I think maybe that was the early seeds were sown in my mind that there was all this stuff out there, rather than just the path that I was being pushed down.

02:10 When I left school unbeknown to my parents really I didn’t really want to go to university it was, I wanted to get out there and you know start working. I’m the youngest of six and there’s quite a gap between me and the 5th eldest and I think that they had both hoped that I would you know follow the academic route. Took a while for I think for my father to sort of like come round to, to my sort of train of thought.

02:36 Well I started off as a part time umpire, while I was still doing my A levels, the cricket centre was I got to you know work with people and that’s really where I found the passion for working in more of a service and leisure industry and decided that that was the path I wanted to follow wherever it took me. And then I was assistant manager working for Aston Villa football club, was actually interviewed by Doug Ellis for my second interview which was quite an experience as a 19 year old lad. So I was assistant manager over in Aston Villa and then, that’s when I made the move over to cinema.

03:09 And it was quite exciting the buzz around Milton Keynes you know in 1985 and everyone had started talking about these big multiplexes so I didn’t really know what it mean but once you know you got into it, I actually saw that there was a lot, one, a lot of opportunity but it was just something that got into your blood a little bit and I think the whole environment of cinema is that every day is different, every week is different because the films that come out are all come out on a Friday so you know your product changes each week.

03:43 I’ve been in cinema now for coming up to 21 years. The thing that’s kept it fresh for me is that I, you know I’ve done quite a lot of different roles, I do love films, but it was more about working with people and working in quite a fast paced environment and you know, where you’re face to face with you know with guests and customers.

04:04