David S. Email & Phone Number

Alpharetta, Us

· Distributor and Supplier of Tile and Stone to the Home Improvement Industry· To implement the strategic goals and objectives of the Corporation· To give direction and leadership toward the achievement of the organization's philosophy, mission, strategy, and its annual goals and objectivesAt this point decided it was time for another start up. This time 100% owned by myself. This would be start up #6 for me. Not the best year to start in the middle of a financial collapse, but out of the ashes have come some incredible companies, so gave it a go :)

Alpharetta, Georgia, Us

Trying to grow an industry-transforming company while having some fun along the way. One of the hardest parts; nobody had done it before. When we started it involved finding new solutions and new ideas new routes to market all the time. Becoming the nations most efficient business model to pass quality & price savings onto the end user.Focusing in on niche sectors of the Building Industry at the time a heavily fragmented half a trillion dollar Home Improvement, New Construction and Remodeling Sector was struggling with many suppliers and companies going out of business. Constantly growing through technology, innovation along with a heavy helping of trial and error.· Empower people within teams making the success of others their priority. Create a selfless culture with a commitment to the success of others and not ones self.· Simplify the supply chain, improve product quality, operate on low margins, lower costs with a no frills marketing strategy. Then bring this value to our customers so they can add what would have been lost profit into the value of their own home or business. Give the power back to the customer. Completely disrupt what has been well over half a century of inefficient supply to the end user.· With over a decade of constantly watching C-Level executives fail to see the future and grasp opportunities. The Builder Depot seeks to change everything with vision and a fearless approach to provide the consumer better value without compromising quality. Then reflect this through incredible reviews from customers.

Started planning in 2015. We were still climbing out of the recession. Nothing was certain. There was just one employee in Forsyth county planning and Development at this date (an army today). That person was there simply because they had been employed the longest (irritatingly had the most vacation as well). It really takes another level of belief to do what no one else is doing. Investing in fixed assets just a few years out of a recession, of course this is actually the ideal moment.Moved forwards with the largest private warehouse development of that year while jointly involved in a duplicate just south of Charleston, SC. Seemed a huge risk in an uncertain time, sleepless nights again (why keep doing this to myself).On reflection (looking back almost a decade) with hindsight due to the lack of construction; availability of land, low cost of building materials and incredible labor skills. I should have built more, but I also accept where would I have got the capital. If no one else was doing it. It is because wiser people and companies were uncertain and unwilling to commit. Not build more!

Brighouse, West Yorkshire, Gb

Hired from my position at Kronotex USA moved from sales to being responsible for the entire USA operations within CP Group and reported to the CEO in the UK. At the time CP Group was the largest Distributor of Ceramic Tile in the USA having a large contract with B&Q (the Home Depot of the UK). Took control of the USA business in 2006 grew the sales 1,233% to a multi-million corporation within 3 years. Introducing new accounts, products and markets. Expanding the operations from previously centered around Atlanta to the entire United States.Fifth startup. This one started from a position of a loss.After writing a board report in 2007 that the USA Corporation should change direction. Operate from one warehouse, reduce staff and consider a new strategy called "E-Commerce". My view must have been seen as 'extreme' in early 2008 as the full impact of the recession had not yet hit home (It was really fast the recession, banks collapsing, default's on mortgages, fast!). And selling Tile online... moving away from our core focus of retailers! People do not like change. Especially when management had invested a decade in one direction.In my view; the retailers always paid late. They fixed their prices so no matter what promotion you ran it never made it to the end user. The entire market was fixed. The internet offered an additional opportunity.However 2008/09 would come along and force me down the very business plan VC's and Executives did not have the vision for or probably never considered in any detail. It would become far larger than the company I ran for them. With their resources it would have been huge. While the main overseas corporation filed for insolvency my new business plan would turn out to be just the right formula for the coming decades.It is easy to reflect on this in 2020 and say "That was obvious". In 2007 it was not. If it had been; everyone would have invested everything in Amazon's stock for $4.00 which today valued at over $3,000.

Vaduz, Li

As the 5th Employee of Kronotex USA (Part of KronoGroup a $5bn private Corporation). Kronotex USA opened a new operation in the USA and hired me from my sales position at Meyer USA. I helped choose product lines and introduce new customers. Growing a business sales territory from zero to $12 million a year within 18 months. These key accounts are still major customers of Kronotex USA today. Now the largest laminate flooring manufacturer in the USA with over 300 employees in Barnwell, SC and a major supplier ($100m+) to Lowes Home Centers.Moved from outside sales to helping start up the newly built factory and manage the inside sales and production forecasting as we switched from Quickbooks (we were at the time the largest revenue company operated on quickbooks) to SAP. Managing the data and helping make decisions. From conference calls to Lowes to how many square feet of each product the factory should make. To moving thousands of containers of OSB throughout the USA on a monthly basis while continuing to develop higher end products with one of factories in France to create branded waterproof OSB. In short..... everything! Very lean team.This was now my third start up in four years. I started to love the start up. The excitement of failure or success. There was so much low hanging fruit in this industry. It was an extremely exciting time. The rejuvenation of Barnwell, SC was also exciting to see. The economic knock on effect was very visible from the day we started to the day the factory was running all three shifts a day.

Courbevoie, Île-De-France, Fr

After European success. Granted H1-B work visa at 22 (youngest in companies history) to help issues with US Group. Chances of H1-B visa approval. Having to prove you (me) can do a job no other American could do is not a given at a young age, but approved :)Sales were zero for Laminate flooring. Initially Marketing Manager for Meyer Laminate Flooring Group a subsidiary of Meyer PLC ($1.5bn corporation which in turn is part of Saint-Gobain a $30bn Corp, which today does seem small but in 2000 that was a big number). After failure of Meyer Flooring with an overly complex structure, CEO of Flooring Division, VP of Flooring Division, Regional Managers of Flooring Division and Sales people in Flooring Division. Empire building at it's best and NO sales. Months later all sales people reassigned. Flooring Division CEO and Regional Managers were dismissed. Flooring Division unsustainable, a waste of resource and time, just meetings about meetings. There is little point being the Marketing Manager in a non-existent Flooring Division. I had to sell it. Get in a car with samples and go door to door. Cold calling to retailers there was at this time 88,000 retailers in the USA. I asked for a “Sales Position" and a chance to sell and do what everyone else had failed to do. After some persuading I switched over to sales of the Meyer Flooring Group (now employee of just one, not really a ‘group’). CFO of main Corporation said "close it and my plan was a bad idea, if 50 professionals and consultants could not make it work then it would not work". (So my plan to sell the over $4m you have in stock of laminate flooring for profit is a bad plan? Again I was confused by the companies leadership). In my opinion it was a growing market, it just needed some energy and relentless effort.I grew the business from zero to two million in twelve months. This led to being offered a position with the manufacturer of their new USA laminate flooring company. Kronotex USA.

Courbevoie, Île-De-France, Fr

Moved to Corporate UK of Saint Gobain which at the time was Meyer, PLC in Coventry to head up new GBP200m Laminate flooring project which was to be jointly launched in USA, UK and Holland at the same time. Had to design and create everything from packaging of glue (at this time required glue to install laminate flooring) to underlayment. Over 1,000 store locations after acquisition , negotiate buying contracts with suppliers and merchandising for showroom point of display. Big Challenge and only had 4 months to complete as Chief Executive had promised launch dates in new locations in Greenwich London with more consumer friendly Pro-Store launches and this project would have an impact on the P&L for 2000. First time experience running a start up.

Coventry, Gb

180,000 applicants. Down to 13 of us Hired. Eventually down to just 1 who will get a visa to the USA. Start at one of the Saint Gobain Conglomerates then work up through the organization during a six month placement in any business, from operations, marketing, accounts and sales within 6 months to shadow the CEO for final weeks. Present report on how to improve the business. Then move onto next business and repeat process. Lasts for two years and 4 companies. Hired from this journey before 5th month to run new project the Introduction of laminate flooring to be sold throughout 600 locations and generate GBP200 Million in 24 months, this included a budget of GBP70m to manage the introduction from Marketing to POS units in showrooms. This also included control issues of new product introduction as 1999 was a time of acquisition and growth with the purchase of Graham Group for GBP269m and Ceramic Tile Distributors in the UK.It was an insanely busy six months. I arrived so early to work it was dark, went home in the dark.

Basildon, Essex, Gb

At this point in the growth of Technology Japanese companies were winning the race globally, their economy was roaring ahead. Their use of Excel and other programs were far advanced to other countries. It would take years for most British companies to even get close to the level of access in systems and software we were working with, but it was all imported and easy to work with, loads of trial and error.Even at this early stage we were working on building our own search engines and when I mean “we” it was myself and a nineteen year old, that was it! This was also IT Support for Europe. No senior executive could see the opportunity or even understand what we were working on. Creating new technologies to support the sales staff and having to simplify the program to make it manageable in the field. Not easy in 1995 when laptops weighed as much as a desktop today. At the end of this year I created my first Software company called Locutus Software, creating search engines for other salespeople in other industries. All created on floppy discs... I know... Floppy what!! My journey to owning my own company and love of technology had started.Now I had the skill to access any corporations data and turn that into useful actionable information to nudge the business direction. Few understood Excel at this point and its ability to present weaknesses or strengths in an easy to understand one page report on how to save or make millions. Data and information was going to drive the future. However the age gap between myself and any board member at this point was significant that was not easy to overcome.As of 2021 Konica Minolta has a market cap of just over $2BN.

Business Studies, Business

Gcse & A Levels