Mark Needham Email & Phone Number

Oxford, England, United Kingdom

East Midlands, England, United Kingdom

Following a period of consulting throughout Europe, with Hays 4PL, I spent 14 years designing, implementing and operating e-fulfilment solutions for some of the UK's major retailers: Boots.com, John Lewis Direct, Cath Kidston, Habitat, Sainsbury's and many more. I returned to consulting to help retailers minimise their fulfilment risk and drive margin improvement.

Nuneaton

A leading online Bathroom Retailer with significant year on year growth. Previously a Ferguson PLC company, subject to an MBO in March 19.With a team of 80 staff, lead the development and delivery of a multisite in-house warehouse logistics strategy in this rapidly growing online retailer that operates in the UK, Ireland, Netherlands and Belgium. The “final mile” delivery is contracted out, requiring board level relationship management with 3rd party delivery providers. In addition, provides full corporate leadership of BCP and H&S ensuring full compliance across 2 sites serving four countries through a team of 6 direct reports. Key Accomplishments:Led the growth of the Logistics function from a single site supporting £36 Million UK sales to £72 Million sales via 3 sites; Nuneaton, Liverpool and Twello, Netherlands, serving the UK, Ireland, Netherlands and Belgium.Sourced and managed the fit out of a new 175,000 ft2 Regional Distribution Centre in Liverpool, implemented a new WMS and recruited and trained a team of 40. Secured a rent-free period that saved a total of £1.1 Million.

The market leading car parts distributor to the UK aftermarket, with an annual turnover of £800 Million and annual growth of over 25%.Led a high-performing team of 700, operating from 3 Distribution Centres, in Tamworth, with a total floor area of 1 Million ft2. Delivered highly cost-effective daily replenishment of 170,000 items from 120,000 SKUs to 190 Branches with over 800,000 items per week, via the company’s own fleet. Provided same day delivery of VOR components from a 120,000 SKU stockholding.Key Accomplishments:Planned and delivered the volume increase for a branch network that grew from 139 to 190 Branches in twelve months.Led the design and build of a semi-automated 700,000ft2 National Distribution CentreIntroduced product streaming across the three warehouses to ensure the ability to deliver a record breaking 25% annual growth and a single delivery to Branch via Cross Dock.

United Kingdom

An award-winning VC backed niche logistics provider with an annual turnover of £40 Million that provides online fulfilment and reverse logistics services to leading retail brands including; John Lewis, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Screwfix and Fortnum & Mason.Led, developed and motivated a team 600 in the provision market leading 3rd party e-fulfilment services from 7 UK sites totalling 1,000,000 ft2 of warehousing. Full responsibility for the day to day operations, client Integrations and projects with a budget of £10 Million. Transformed the operating culture from an established site by site silo, to an integrated operating community. Designed and led the successful implementation of Click and Collect for Sainsbury’s and John Lewis. Migrated the Boots e-fulfilment operation from iForce into Boots own warehouse in Burton on Trent.Oversaw the central functions of H&S, BCP, group property management and compliance, a team of 7 General Managers with a budget of £35 Million. Gained companywide accreditation to BS18001 for the Health and Safety management system and BS 14001 accreditation for the environmental management system.Key Accomplishments:Enabled iForce to become EBITDA profitable at £500k, from a starting point of £4 Million loss in 2007Established a highly effective process to plan and manage substantial Peak trading periods.Won contract extensions from John Lewis, Boots and Sainsbury’s worth £14 Million by transforming the operating practices to establish a scalable operating method that ensured highly successful peak trading.Awarded 3PL of the year 2013 at The Grocer Magazine Gold Awards and Retail Week Magazine Supply Chain Awards.

Birmingham, United Kingdom

Implemented a combined e-fulfilment and returns processing operation for Sainsbury’s and the European e-fulfilment operation for Habitat. Designed and delivered the migration of the e-fulfilment live operation from two sites to be consolidated into a larger site of 250,000 ft2 without impacting the trading of John Lewis. Rationalised the iForce site portfolio, closed 2 sites and migrated the live operations into established iForce sites. Established a Perpetual Inventory process that enabled clear visibility of key metrics. Recovered a failing operation at Peak that lead to a contract extension and promotion to Logistics Director. Key Accomplishments:Migrated the John Lewis Direct Operation from 2 smaller sheds into 250,000 ft2 facility without a drop in service levels.Significantly re-developed the boots.com fulfilment operation, enabling it to handle substantial growth.

A VC backed provider of transactional Print and Mail services to the Mobile Telecommunications, Banking and Utility sectors. TUPEd from Hays Logistics.Implemented a formal change process. Ensured the team of 42 was trained in PRINCE 2 and key team members were qualified ITIL Service managers. Full P&L responsibility for a budget of £1.2 Million.Key Accomplishments:Implemented significant changes for BT, Vodafone, 02 and NTL transactional Print & Mail, enabling dynamic messaging to their customers. In addition, enabled the paper bills to be printed in the sequence as required by the Royal Mail to optimise sorting and delivery efficiency. This reduced the cost of postage by 15%.

Successfully delivered an increasingly diverse and complex range of projects in UK and Europe, covering manufacturing and retail as well as due diligence and acquisitions.Consultant & General Manager - European Supply Chain Solutions, based in Paris. Worked predominantly in Poland and Holland as a Supply Chain Consultancy to Unilever. Identified ways to streamline the company’s diverse supply chains for European Brands in Poland.General Manager – Implemented and operated a 650,000ft2 imports and seasonal stock Distribution Centre for B&QSupply Chain Director – Secondment to Allders Department Stores, reporting to their Main Board. Led “Project Streamline” which delivered a run rate saving of £1.5 Million per annum. Contract Manager – Bridgestone Firestone Tyres – Worked closely with their European Supply Chain Director. Contract Manager – Marks & Spencer Home Delivery - Implemented and operated Hays Home Delivery for Marks & Spencer, achieved Year 1 budgeted profit, in addition to BS5750 accreditation.