Eve marks her silver anniversary at Portsmouth popular clothes store

Eve Rudder, 50, from Portsmouth, store manager, has recently celebrated an incredible 25 years service at Dorothy Perkins, with 17 spent at Cascades Shopping Centre based in Portsmouth. Picture: Sarah Standing (290119-7694)

Eve originally started her career at Miss Selfridge in Cascades before moving to the Burton Group – now Arcadia Group – which owns Dorothy Perkins.

From there, Eve moved to a concept store for the company in Kent and then on to an Evans store in Chichester before arriving back in Portsmouth as store manager at Dorothy Perkins in Cascades in 2002.

‘I can’t believe I’ve been doing this for 25 years,’ said Eve.

‘I’ve worked my way up to store manager and I think I’ve done pretty much everything imaginable in my role.

‘It’s been a fantastic experience and one that I wouldn’t change.’

In her time at Cascades, Eve has seen plenty of changes. From the faces that she works with, to people’s shopping habits, a move to a new 10,000 sq ft unit and even the way stores look and feel, she has been part of it all.

‘It’s definitely very different from when I first started,’ she said. ‘Stores are far more visual as people want to see what outfits look like put together.

‘Customers are also far more time conscious than they ever were before, and I think online has had an impact on that. We now have iPads in-store and Click and Collect has become a key feature of what we offer. I think that there will always be room for physical stores as some shoppers love the experience of seeing the items up close and being able to touch them and the level of service that comes with being in-store is still very important to them.’

Eve’s team has grown to 40, and she said she loves working with her colleagues.

She said: ‘We always say in the store that we’re one big DP family with how much time we spend with each other.

‘We really support each other through everything that life throws at us. When my father passed away the team here were incredible in helping me through it when I came back to work.’

Looking ahead, Eve has no plans to leave.

She said: ‘I still wake up and love coming to work.’

Cascades centre manager, Andrew Philip, said: ‘25 years is an incredible achievement. Eve has a wealth of experience and she’s a pleasure to work with. Long may that continue.’