Retail Consultancy: available for consultancy/freelance work cross a number of specialisms: - Trade & customer planning- Category & range planning- Supplier/retailer engagement- Commercial negotiations- Critical path creation & management- Brand management - Customer research & insight- Copywriting- Public Relations

Senior Manager: Wholesale

Key responsibilities:- To create and build compelling and innovative Omni-channel communication plans which deliver through the line in the most cost efficient way. - Accountable for a National Comms budget across food and GM and sole responsibility for George budget.- Working with global brands such as Samsung, Beats, EA Sports and Universal to drive investment into Asda through creating and selling in compelling onmi-channel communication programmes.- Leading a team of 4 and managing teams at Asda’s media and marketing agencies.- Proven record in securing supplier investment into Asda. - Designed, organised and rolled out a 4 month Training Programme for 40+ colleagues across the Communication planning team delivered by both external media agencies and Asda academy.

- Created the ‘capture and convert’ marketing strategy for the category and introduced an annual activity plan to implement this across ranges, promotions and events in all 4 categories.- Built partnerships with some of the world’s biggest and best known entertainment brands to develop and launch compelling marketing plans for launches such as Call of Duty, Harry Potter and FIFA Football which delivered record sales and market share for Asda and furthered monetisation opportunities into the category.- Reinvented the end to end category promotional process. This delivered a collective customer focused and commercially viable offer which saw sales from promotions rise by over 10%.- Delivered the biggest ever programme of customer insight for the Music, DVD and Games category which formed the basis of the 3 year category strategy and the annual promotional activity plan.

- Responsible for a P&L of £79m sales- Managed a team of 7, including buyers, trading assistants and returns managers. Developed a high achieving team with 2 team members successfully promoted in role.- Created and executed an end to end supplier strategy, from terms negotiations through to improving a complex supply chain; increasing profitability and making things simpler for depots and stores.- Mapped out a new operating model for books which saved £1m. Asda went from the highest returns rate to the lowest in the supermarket sector.- Delivered market leading customer offers. 2 for 7 on Paperback chart, 2 for £15 on Hardbacks.- Originated the concept for Asda’s ‘Big Read’ event – the first of its kind in Asda and a market leading offer. Delivered +£1m incremental sales and double digit sales growth in a flat market.

- Managing an annual P&L of £68m.- Negotiated, planned and executed the final Harry Potter Hardback launch, delivering a market leading price, sales of £2.5m in 1 day with a 21% market share…and the front page headline in The Sun.- Won the Bookseller of the Year at the British Book Awards and was voted in the Top 100 most influential people in publishing. - Created the Asda ‘Book club’, negotiating sponsorship with Mars Galaxy. All books had exclusive content and were supported by a microsite and online discussion forum. Successfully broke Karen Rose and Gillian Flynn in the UK.