Darren Mason Email and Phone Number

Managed a £100m+ business with a team of 27 delivering full-service home entertainment solutions to UK retailers. Responsible for customer and supplier acquisition, commercial strategy, range selection, fixture provision, distribution to store, POS, inventory management, reverse logistics, and P&L level financial reporting. Grew the business from nothing to over 10% market share. In 2015 developed a DTC proposition that operated across eBay, Amazon, and our own website that delivered over £12m in 2020 before we completed a successful sale in early 2021.Zoom.co.uk• Became the gatekeeper for non-traditional home entertainment retail in the UK and Ireland • Despite being owned by two major players, (Universal and Sony Pictures) secured content deals with Disney, BBC, Warner, Fox, Paramount, eOne, Lionsgate, Studio Canal & Sony, Universal & Warner Music• Grew market share every year and introduced innovations that were adopted across the industry• Won External Supplier of the Year and Innovation of the Year at the British Association of Screen Entertainment Awards in 2020Retail achievements• Expanded home entertainment retail outlets in the UK from 5k to 20k• Convinced retailers to trade in Home Entertainment; Primark, Co-op, (TCG and CRTG), Waitrose, Lidl, Aldi, Argos, Homebase, B&Q, Boots, Superdrug, Lloyds Pharmacy, B&M, Home Bargains, Matalan, BHS, Dorothy Perkins, Debenhams, Marks & Spencer, BP, John Lewis, McColls, Makro & Factory ShopDTC achievements• Listed over 20k SKUs on eBay, Amazon Marketplace, and our website (www.Zoom.co.uk)• Created dynamic pricing engine, managed by simple rules and API price monitoring• Built an active database of over 300k consumers on our website, with traffic over 500k per monthProduct Marketing achievements• Managed a DVD label from 2006 to 2015 with retail sales of over £30m paLeadership achievements• My team achieved an overall engagement score of 89% beating every NBCU average score

Managed a DVD label for Universal alongside the non-traditional business I pioneered over the previous 4 years. Total sales grew to over £70m at retail. Oversaw product development, sales, marketing, and business development and worked closely with shared sales and operations teams within Universal Pictures UK Ltd. Experience in product creation, working with major studios and licensing. During this time we also launched a unique touchscreen DVD vending machine business - whilst it didn't quite achieve the goals we set was a huge learning experience.

This role was created for me after I presented a business plan to re-invent, non-traditional home entertainment distribution. Started from nothing and built retail sales above £40m per annum before being promoted to continue the non-traditional business alongside taking overall control of the UCA business.

My first role at Universal. Quickly took Universal from second to first in the market. Achieved significant sales growth and paved the way for Universal to join with Sony Pictures to create UCA. Was promoted after presenting an idea to significantly increase distribution of our products in the UK.