Ron Watson Email & Phone Number

York, Gb

Leeds, England, United Kingdom

Leeds, England, United Kingdom

Hull, United Kingdom

• Deliver the commercial and operational change projects for the business through structured project management support from business case creation and project management plan production through to project delivery and successful completion• Manage project budgets within agreed targets• Provide regular progress reports to the board including risks, issues, opportunities and proposed actions• Complete project retrospectives and document and share lessons learnt for future projects• Work with internal and third-party stakeholders when required to ensure successful project delivery

Bradford, United Kingdom

• Managed all aspects of a unionised, automated, 800 FTE Returns operation.• Delivered a successful end of season sale plan at the Next Returns Centre for both Autumn/Winter and Spring/Summer by putting together a plan based on inputs from the shop floor team managers. This resulted in a reduced cost per unit of 7% compared to previous end of season sales and a much more engaged shop floor management team.• Implemented processes to match odd shirts/ties and to refurbish lightly marked handbags using Lean techniques. The result was a saving of £300k per year.

Brussels Area, Belgium

• Full site responsibility for a 400 FTE, 50,000 SKU, semi-automated, unionised operation with an annual operating budget of €30 million.• Drove an initiative to roll out Lean principles in the Distribution Centre resulting in $1M in savings in 2 years through labour reduction, reduced packaging costs and implementation of new automation. • Expanded Distribution Centre capacity and capabilities to support increased sales and new product acquisitions/launches by working with manufacturing sites to understand expected inbound volumes and plan accordingly as well as identifying an opportunity to roll out a repack/relabel centre within the Distribution Centre. This resulted in significant cost avoidance having to invest in another Distribution Centre and the repack/relabel centre reduced the back to stock time from 30 days to 10 days.• Guided the distribution team through a period of significant change after an organisational restructure where many of the Distribution Centre management team took new opportunities within the business leaving a leaner team some of whom were new in role. By focussing on the development of the new team and through careful guidance and leadership the new team all succeeded in their new roles.

Brussels Area, Belgium

• Responsible for the daily running of a 400 FTE, 50,000 SKU, semi-automated, unionised operation during a 4 year ramp up in activity as part of a European Distribution consolidation project.• Led the transfer of an orthopaedic loaner kit operation including decontamination facility into a new Distribution Centre on a new IT platform with a new team of operators. This was achieved by working closely with an engineering team to construct a benchmark decontamination facility, IT to test and implement the software and HR to recruit the new team. The result was a seamless transfer from a customer perspective and a significant milestone in strategic objective to consolidate all European distribution into one site. • Lead the integration of numerous new businesses – including warehouse transfers and acquisitions into the Distribution Centre notably a breast implant business transferring from Paris to Belgium. This involved the sensitive element of working with and depending upon a team of people who were ultimately losing their jobs at the end of the project. The result was a successful transfer into the Distribution Centre.

Amsterdam Area, Netherlands

• Responsible for a 35 FTE, 3,000 SKU Distribution Centre with an annual budget of €2million• Reviewed all Distribution Centre processes and put measures in place to bring customer complaints down to less than 0.01% of all shipments made and achieve 99.5% inventory accuracy• Managed the closure of the Netherlands Distribution Centre. Through very close collaboration with the distribution team and HR only 2 of 35 affected employees left before the closure date and normal service levels continued to the final day

Leeds, United Kingdom

Developed a solid understanding of how all aspects of a distribution environment operate and how to manage and lead a team within that environment by managing shop floor teams and volunteering to get involved in projects and activities outside of my direct area of responsibility