In 2020, I was appointed to an executive role and was given responsibility for managing the company’s newly established commercial partnership with Caltex (now Ampol). While in the role, I have leveraged my experience in the petrol and convenience space to re-establish high-level relationships with Ampol executives and reduce the cost of rollout processes.I have worked collaboratively with commercial partners to design, develop and deliver a brand new retail format in the traditional petrol and convenience market. I have managed the rollout of new Ampol MetroGo conversion stores, leading business process improvement and substantially reducing costs for both business partners.I lead a dynamic team responsible for property, format, store operations and wholesale business in conjunction with commercial partners. I also function as a member of the Woolworths B2B / New Business leadership team, with a focus on strategic planning and development.

Continuing to develop the company’s food service offering, my role was expanded to include strategic development programs, deli hot food products and services, and associated poultry product lines. I successfully led efforts to consolidate and streamline Woolworths Café locations and subsequently managed operations across a $600 million business portfolio.I designed and developed the emerging food service category and operations within Woolworths Supermarkets and Metro Stores nationally, including cafes, deli self-serve and serviced hot food, along with other new business concept initiatives.Leveraging lessons learned from the Food Quarter project, I established new food service and cafe offerings within Woolworths supermarkets, enhanced existing product offerings, which had traditionally struggled in a highly competitive space.I also managed food service and deli products and services across 1000 Woolworths stores throughout Australia, leading a highly capable team that included category managers and assistants, product development specialists, chefs and food service operations staff.While in the role, I successfully led consolidation and turnaround efforts across existing products and services to ensure a more consistent product offering, while enhancing revenue and profit.I continued to lead ongoing development of Food Quarter products and services, and project-managed expansion of the concept through the development of in-store dining at The Kitchen within our concept development store at Double Bay.

I was originally appointed to develop and deliver an innovative in-supermarket restaurant and food service concept, but redirected my efforts toward the development of a pilot space within the company’s Head Office. I secured buy-in for an internal pilot program within the company’s headquarters and then designed, developed and delivered the Food Quarter with a broad range of fresh food product offerings, serving 4,500 centrally located staff.I shepherded the Food Quarter through start-up phases, including contractor engagement, product development and establishment of operating models, and then drove best practice operations and profitability across product and service offerings. Working with a highly capable team, I established in-house catering capacity in addition to day-to-day food service, allowing the Food Quarter to deliver catering services for functions of more than 500 guests. Across the project, I secured strong customer feedback, generating $2.5 million in sales per year.Having redefined the company’s Food Service Strategy, I led development and rollout of other food service products.

Craveable is the owner of the Oporto, Red Rooster and Chicken Treat businesses, providing restaurant and take-away food services to over 550 stores in Australia and internationally. This role was created in 2012 and I was appointed to develop the Group approach to streamlining operations and realising business benefits. I managed strategic directions at a Group Operations level by providing input into strategic business growth plans for senior management and board approval. I also worked with brand CEOs to develop and deliver business cases, secure buy-in from franchise partners, and directly manage implementation across stores. I worked with construction and design teams to deliver innovation and a new, cost-effective approach to store rollouts. I successfully reduced fit-out and equipment costs while enhancing quality and service delivery at new and existing locations.I developed and maintained an extensive network of senior management, franchise owners and operations staff to deliver operational excellence across three separate businesses, and to provide a centralised strategic view from the Craveable Brands Group perspective.

As the International Operations Manager I worked closely with the master franchisees and their teams in each market to deliver the brand strategy and achieve sales targets and store development plans.I developed strong working relationships with master franchise partners in USA, China and New Zealand, overseeing compliance of the Oporto master franchise agreement through quarterly market visits. I partnered with the master franchisee to identify business growth opportunities, tailoring for the local market through store development, franchising, marketing and new product development.During this period I successfully opened Oporto in the USA and China markets, and delivered Oporto New Zealand double-digit sales growth.Overall Brand Development and Training were also key aspects of this role both on a domestic and international front. This included managing the development team of the Oporto concept store, and developing the new Oporto Customer Experience Program. I managed the national training department and delivered training for the field management team through developing “value-add” workshops to deploy in their franchise business regions.

I was responsible for overseeing northern NSW and New Zealand operations (80 stores). In addition I managed the national training team, delivering training to all Australian operations. My direct team comprised 5 Business Development Managers and 4 Training Managers.For the region I led the team to ensure successful operational execution of all new product development and marketing initiatives, meeting sales and operations quarterly targets, and conducting regular meetings with franchisees to achieve targets and deliver operational support. As manager of the training function I developed the Oporto Management training system to include Basic, Intermediate and Advanced Management Courses, and aligned these to a Certificate IV qualification in Retail Management. I also developed the course and gained accreditation for Oporto to internally deliver the mandatory Food Safety Supervisors course.