Russell Whitaker Email & Phone Number

Thaon-Les-Vosges, Grand Est, France

Lyon, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France

Successfully built the brand's industry leading product portfolio of the future by means of trend spotting, athlete feedback, sales analysis and collaborative creative thinking.Created and signed off meaningful product briefs before working with design and development teams to ensure products are both purposeful and commercially successful.Implemented and coordinated a company-wide critical path, streamlining the efforts of the R&D, product, brand, marketing, purchasing and sales teams ensuring that the entire business stayed time focussed from product concept through to retirement.Directed the creation of a global warranty tracker, enabling the brand to track in detail all product failures and to seamlessly aid future product evolution.Established and maintained a global pricing strategy that enabled the international distribution network and their dealer networks to succeed with the brand.

Milton Keynes, United Kingdom

Owned the entire own-brand Madison Clothing and parts & accessories (M:Part, Aztec, Truflo, Hump, etc) areas of the business, as well as the creative team for the bikes division (Genesis, Saracen, Ridgeback, Adventure), I was the driving force behind the brands’ strategic long term and short term visions.Using an entrepreneurial approach, managed all elements of the brands from product concept, sourcing & vendor management, design & development, board level sign-off then taking the brand to market through both strategic and tactical marketing.Created a tailored approach for each brand, both large and small, setting the brands up for long term growth and success. Supported the team of product and brand managers, advising and coaching them in effective ways of managing their brands.Managed the bicycle, apparel and parts & accessories design teams, helping them to achieve premier designs tailored to each brand’s specific needs.Oversaw the installation and roll-out of an in-house wheel building operation, further enhancing brand profit.Conducted regular vendor visits, managing supplier relations and contracts.

Milton Keynes, United Kingdom

Heading up Madison's own apparel operations, taking the brand in its infancy to become an established market player with a complete product portfolio, healthy profit margin and turnover. Positioning of the brand through sponsorship of both road and mountain bike race teams, leveraging professional rider feedback to drive innovation in consumer products. Performance and value recognised through receipt of customer-voted industry awards. Under my direction the brand's revenue quadrupled.Responsible for the entirety of the brand from product range creation, brand position and stock management through to recruiting and managing the team of designers, developers and garment technicians.Developed the short term, long term and seasonal brand plans, built around P&L, revenue & margin targets. This included identifying strategies to improve profit in all areas of the product life-cycle while maintaining high quality product standards.Created the B2B sales support programs, along with the in-store Points of Sale (POS) to add value to our sales proposition. Managed the seasonal promotional calendar.Conducted regular vendor visits, managing supplier relations and ensuring timely deliveries.

Milton Keynes, United Kingdom

Managed and grew a range of industry-leading brands. Including adding the Commencal Bicycles, RedBull and Giro Snow brands to the company’s portfolioLed the hugely successful launch of the Commencal Bicycles brand into the UK in 2007, quickly establishing them as a market leader in the mountain bike category.Had major involvement in all aspects of the brands including product ranging, price strategy, sales & account management, buying, after sales care as well as all aspects of marketing the brands.Advised and influenced on the marketing strategy including sports marketing, events, sampling, print, online and in-store presence.Conducted regular customer and supplier visits; Taking real world market feedback, identifying trends and opportunities in a constructive, and commercially justified way, feeding back to the brand to influence future product designs.Conducted European and UK press and dealer trips, interacting with the media regularly, resulting in articles in both specialist and mainstream press.

Milton Keynes, United Kingdom

Managed a wide and varied portfolio of brands, primarily Thor, Ogio, Asterisk, FactoryFX, Motion Pro and ODI.Successfully shopped for and introduced new brands to the business, including Ogio, Asterisk and Contour camera.Managed the business relationships for the brands I was responsible for between Madison and the 3rd party brands.Created annual marketing plans, budgeting, market product pricing, forecasting and ranging.

Milton Keynes, United Kingdom

A specialist role assisting premier motocross and bicycle dealers with the technicalities of a product portfolio containing over 50,000 SKU’s.Created sales initiatives and specialist order forms for seasonal product launches.Analysed sales data and recommended customised product selections to customers.Developed a deep technical understanding of a very large portfolio of industry leading products.

Milton Keynes, United Kingdom

Efficiently received inbound calls from the UK’s bicycle and motocross dealers, inputting sales orders and advising customers with technical questions.Created relationships with key customers within the UK cycle industry.Gained a healthy knowledge of a very large portfolio of industry leading products.

Milton Keynes, United Kingdom

Newport Pagnell, United Kingdom

Weekend & holiday work.- Bicycle & Parts Sales- Bicycle Mechanic

A-Levels

Gcse'S