With over twenty years experience in buying, brand incubation, and product development, I can advise, guide and partner with you and your teams on both tactical and strategic work.​Creative, ahead of trends, customer obsessed and yet always commercial and scientific, I will work with you to ensure that our projects maximise return on investment.​I specialise in Beauty, with an in-depth knowledge of Skincare, but having worked in a number of different areas over my career I can easily flex and work in different categories.Visit www.whitelabelthinking.com for more details.

• Creation of Innovation strategy to grow NPD sales fivefold in first year. Careful balance of short-, medium- & long-term opportunities.• Mapping and implementation of new NPD process.• Business lead on innovation – presenting & inspiring new ways of thinking.• Liaising with sales teams & distributors to learn their consumers & grow their ranges.• Analysing current portfolio for gaps, review & exits. • Directing pricing hierarchy & strategy,

• Business management as part of a leadership team of four Directors.• Responsibility for strategic company projects.• Creation and implementation of company NPD process; ensuring efficiency, creativity, commercial rigour and risk management.• Delivery of cross functional engagement for business change.• Establishment of annual budgeting and reforecasting process.• Leadership on innovation and trend insight for company.• Guidance on brand development for inhouse brands.• Customer development across indie brands, large brands and retailers.• Direct management of NPD, Brand & Lab Teams.• Inception and operation of people plan to include structure, recruitment, policy, communication, engagement, diversity and learning.• Lead on B Corp application and on Ethical accreditation.

• Working closely with company founders to deliver and drive their vision.• Developing new categories, new brands and new range concepts.• Creating product-based Sustainability plan for entire business.• Driving NPD plan with my product team; managing design team.• Closely collaborating with Social Media, Content & Technical team.• Cooperating with Commercial team on data and profitability.• Developing strategic partnerships with key manufacturers.

This role, within the strategically important Own Brand team, gives me a significant impact across the wider business. Responsible for both innovative and commoditised products and ranges, I have honed my skills to be both creative and effective. Now responsible for a much bigger team than in previous roles, leadership is something I have embraced.• Accountable for the Own Brand Skin & Hair category, achieving double digit growth in 2017.• Generation of 18 month NPD plan via market and competitor reviews, trend monitoring and gap analysis. Lead on cross category new brand opportunities.• Creation of strategies for “Power Brands”; communication and implementation of plans through collaboration with other teams.• Relationship management with key Exclusive brands; networking and trend analysis to source new cross category opportunities.• Use of both internal (Sales, Beautycard) and external (Mintel, IRI) data to inform strategic development of new products and existing brands.• Development of NPD and trading of existing products and brands.• Reduction of costs on existing ranges via tendering, renegotiation and value engineering.• Creation of process map and documents for wider team; delivery of bitesize training sessions to raise skill level across the department.• Leadership of a team of three direct reports; mentoring in the wider business.• Peer to peer, key stakeholder and senior management influencing and networking. Regular presentations and engagement sessions.Key Achievements:ZOELLA BEAUTY - Concept and developmentEVERYWOMAN RETAIL AMBASSADOR - WinnerCEW MEMBERS’ ACHIEVER AWARD - FinalistSUPERDRUG WOMENS’ NETWORK - Joint Founder and Steering Committee

Buyer for Nailcare & Cosmetic Bags then Sanpro & Bath Accs and then Oralcare.Within this FMCG environment, I worked on a number of product areas and developed effective relationships with some very big suppliers, as well as nurturing smaller brands. This role also allowed me to consolidate my category management and negotiation skills.• Creating joint business plans with suppliers.• Category management including analysis of over and underperforming ranges.• Negotiating with large brands such as P&G, GSK, J&J etc.• Maximising supplier income.• Maintaining strong promotional plans and accurate forecasts.

Working in a smaller business, I had the chance to have a real impact in a short space of time with both process and commercial improvements. As my first real multi channel retailer, this gave me further opportunity to navigate the opportunities and challenges this entails. As a line manager, I also started to develop my coaching and mentoring skills.• Set up of new Far East supply route via Hong Kong agent.• Implementation of new range review process and trading meeting structure.• Creation of formalised sample sealing process.• Renegotiation of key product areas – 20% reduction on largest category.• Management and development of Assistant Buyer.

A broad range of categories meant this was a multi faceted and dynamic buying role, widening my experience. • Seasonal trading of Christmas ranges.• Renegotiation of costs and terms with key suppliers with significant margin improvements achieved.• Considerable direct sourcing from Far East and India.

This Buying role was an excellent introduction to my career with both Branded and Own Label ranges to develop and trade.• Trading of existing ranges – both Branded and Own Label.• Product Development – working with QA and Design teams.

The Graduate Scheme gave a comprehensive overview of key areas of the business, leading me to choose to specialise as an Assistant Buyer.Four placements:• Assistant Buyer: Personalised Stationery & Invitations• New Product Development Team• Christmas Buying Team• Tunbridge Wells Store