With a passion for skincare and vitamins, Bibiana Zaadi excels in tailoring her advice and product offering to local needs and has helped her pharmacy increase its retail sales

Bibiana Zaadi – known as Biba – the retail manager at Warman Freed Pharmacy in London’s Golders Green, was nominated for this year’s Recognition of Excellence Awards by general manager Farah Ali, who described her as her “second hand”. The judging panel didn’t take much convincing when they reviewed Biba’s entry, deciding to award her Highly Commendeds for both the Counter Intelligence and Retail Skills Awards, which were sponsored by Voltarol and Puressentiel respectively.

Biba has a lot of responsibility at the pharmacy, including overseeing the day-today running and being the key contact for suppliers. She looks after the development and performance of the whole team, using incentives to motivate staff and running learning sessions in the pharmacy, for example on new product ranges. She also sends staff on external training courses so that the pharmacy has experts on various brands, and invites companies to come into the store to educate the whole team where appropriate. Continuing education is something she feels passionate about. “It’s so important to keep making your knowledge better and better,” says Biba.

On the retail side of the business, Biba has really made her mark. As well as being in charge of ordering, merchandising and window dressing, she has worked hard to secure the branch as a full account holder for several luxury skincare ranges. This means that Warman Freed is among the first to stock new products and benefit from promotions that it then passes on to its customers. Sales are booming as a result of her efforts, with retail up by 12.6 per cent between 2016 and 2017, and OTC up by 11 per cent over the same period.

Having gained her medicines counter assistant qualification in her previous job at an independent pharmacy in central London, Biba is trying to decide whether she wants to do a dispensing assistant course. 

She sees its worth, but senses that her strengths lie in the retail side of the business. She happily does whatever is required, whether that is filling in on the pharmacy counter, working on the shop fl oor or answering questions from customers about beauty. As she says: “It’s a team effort, and means that the dispensary staff can do what they are trained for and best at without having to come out to do all the other things.”

Biba is acutely aware of the needs of the local community, making sure that the pharmacy offers products that are appropriate. For example, there is a big Jewish population in the area so Biba has made sure that the supplements that are on sale are kosher certified and that this is highlighted on displays. She has also extended the store's gift-wrapping service to include Jewish holidays.

Customer care is of paramount importance to Biba, with many visitors to the pharmacy asking for her by name, perhaps because of her fluency in five languages. A mystery shopper agreed that the level of service on offer was excellent, giving Biba a 100 per cent score. As Awards judge and 2014 Spotlight Award winner Leanne Beverley summarised, Biba is “a great advocate” and “a huge asset”. Biba says that her colleagues were delighted for her, and her Highly Commended certificates now have pride of place in the pharmacy. Biba loved the Recognition of Excellence Awards ceremony. “I didn’t know what to expect, but it was such a beautiful event,” she says. “The stories were amazing. You just don’t know what people do in their jobs every day. They all work so hard and make such a difference to the lives of their customers.”