Liam Rafferty Email & Phone Number

North Shields, Gb

North Shields, Gb

Newcastle Gateshead

North Shields, England, United Kingdom

Newcastle Upon Tyne, England, United Kingdom

Working with Investors, Entrepreneurial Businesses and Owners to deliver bespoke change based projects and commercial acceleration programmes, including IT Strategic Transformation and Implementation, Turnaround Strategies, M&A Buy & Build execution, ‘Go To Market’ Sales Development initiatives, specialist NED & Advisory Board positions and Investment solutions.Helping Business Owners/Managers/Entrepreneurs with:• Executive Team Development, Business Growth Planning and Execution• Operational, Digital and Technology transformation & optimisation - transforming operational and technology asset efficiency, profitability, and capability delivering above trend ROI’s within both Corporate and high growth SME environments • Resilient growth and scale – guiding and driving high growth businesses, including through periods of major change and disruption, international & national expansion, and high growth (eg. sales growth of £250m t/o to £1,200m in x5 years) • Fast sustainable turnaround experience – delivering swift returns to profit through identification and implementation of effective growth and operating strategies, people leadership and development change programs• Data Insight - delivering real MI/BI insights that drive business visibility, decisions, growth and ultimate profitability

Darlington, England, United Kingdom

Initial Investor led Business Review followed by a company wide restructure across omni channel offering. Change Management Plan developed, created and executed limiting losses FY24 and returning to profitability FY25.- Identified x7 Work Streams and x19 Business Improvement Projects to turnaround company commercial and operational performance - Developed new and enhanced Commercial Strategy, increased Operational Cadence within the business and delivered multiple Digital changes and improvements- Brand and SKU Rationalisation completed reducing complexity and delivering YOY margin improvements- Executive Team and company wide restructure resulting in significant cost savings

Warwick, England, United Kingdom

Led x71 stores and x2000+ people Operational Team to deliver +37.6% YOY sales growth, +1.8% net margin & delivered +20.4% profit increase• Developed comprehensive company retail vision, strategy and executable plan to 2025 to deliver +82.5% t/o growth• £10 million Business Transformation Plan (IT, EPOS & ERP) identified, improved and created as part of a Global Project Team, covering x16 countries/regions• Introduced and successfully integrated new National Supplier (Morrisons) into business resulting in increased store sales (+15.6%), gross margin (+2.1%), range, customer experience and enhanced efficiency of operational processes• Professionalised the Head Office Team MO, implementing communication excellence, proven reporting structures and manageable retail KPI performance measures to assist all multi-disciplinary Teams

Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom

Developed innovative, efficient and profit making IT strategy, infrastructure and systems within this early development but high growth North East SME (£2-20 million t/o in x5 years / x1200 new customers/mth pre-lockdown).• Restructured IT Team and recruited market leading personnel – influencing and inspiring Team to deliver• Enabled x90+ employees to Work From Home within x3 days prior to COVID 19 lockdown period• Identified and realised £40k+ savings across the IT Dept in x6 months – further £25k+ scoped• Completed full companywide data Cloud Migration project of all legacy systems x2 months into lockdown, delivering £100k Op Ex and £100k Cap Ex savings• Delivered x2 £100k+ infrastructure, business digital transformation and market disruption development projects (Salesforce CRM redeployment / Smart Bin Concept Production) – revolutionising business wide digital customer and supplier interaction, delivering 50+ process optimisations and £200k+ savings (equivalent of x10 FTE), enabling £10 million/annum planned growth, potential service/market diversification and scale up opportunity

Uk & Ireland

Headed the internal development, innovation and strategic plan to enable the business to manage the expansion, scale-up and growth.• Identified, developed and implemented a 5-year strategic business transformation and growth plan, from £1.5 million to £10 million fee t/o - including 30% YOY organic growth and £4 million M&A targeting• Opened regional offices in the North (Leeds) and Scotland (Glasgow) whilst advancing the internal business structure, development processes and initiatives to win further sales – achieving +17% Y1 & +19% Y2 YOY Gross Profit Growth• Investigated International markets (EMEA), opened an office in Dublin Jan 17, recruiting a high-level Business Unit Director – used as a proof of concept for expansion, financing and future growth plans – operationally profitable in x18 months

Darton

Leading and running a privately owned niche value discount retail business with 110 stores across the North of England, t/o £60 - £65 million- Delivered EBITDA year on year increase though a period of major retail market disruption and change- Led and restructured the Buying Team, delivering a significant overall margin increase and year on year case no. increase- Ran Store Operations Team for x7 months until new Retail Operations Director recruited- Opened x3 new sites and identified numerous potential future sites working alongside retained Property agent- Led Finance & Central Operations Team strategy - Refitted, re-merchandised and extended x3 existing stores resulting in substantial sales and customer increases

Darlington, United Kingdom

- Reporting directly to the Regional Managing Director, responsible for all regional financial strategy, planning and control for 100 stores in the North East and Yorkshire.- Maintain adherence to and overall control of all Regional Key Performance Indicators - realised continued year on year regional EBIT % growth.- Coordinating Director for new Regional Distribution Centre and Offices in Goldthorpe (S Yorkshire), servicing 100+ stores and employing 800+ people - successfully opened March 2015- Ensuring the smooth, efficient and effective operation and people management of the various Regional Finance & Administration Teams including Payroll, Merchandise and Non Merchandise Accounts, Store Accounts, Trading and all PAs to Regional Directors and MD - x40 direct onsite reports and x5 offsite Project Managers (Internal & External)- Nationally responsible for Utilities Procurement 2009 - 2015 for 500+ stores and x8 RDCs and sat on National Energy Management Committee, delivering multi million £ savings and directly working on multi million £ investments eg. Energy Optimisation store sub metering and PV installation- National IT Test Region Coordinating Director for Logistics and the Merchandise Management IT System - part of a multi national/multi disciplinary team responsible for systems development, testing, implementing and training staff for international rollout for new warehouse project 2008

•Autonomous role running 5-7 retail stores - moved to North East 2001 by Store Operations Director during period of protracted employee relation problems and worked as part of small team to devise working strategy to overcome problems alongside continued achievement of results - managed to reduce inventory loss by over 40% over 3 years and improved customer service standing by 6 places (to 1st position) on internal mystery shopper audits.•People management of staff over multiple sites.•Leadership role where motivation, encouragement, management development and support the key requirements, including personal and career development strategies. •Responsible for optimising sales, minimising costs and losses, maximising productivity while positively encouraging a co-operative and competitive working environment within the stores.•Had responsibility for installation, training and development rollout for scanning till introduction in UK and Ireland 2001 – national project completed in 9 months on time at reduced cost.

•Teaching English to local people as a second language - all levels and ages.•Helped set up the school from scratch alongside new Franchisee Owners.•Successfully lived and worked through economic monetary crisis in SE Asia.

Msc Computing Science, Project Management

Ba Hons Politics 2:1, International Relations And Affairs