
Director of Trading. (Operational Board) - CMO Stores group. www.cmogroup.com
APR 2022 – Present Hybrid (Darlington, Ipswich & Plymouth) UK’s largest online-only retailer of building materials..
Achievements/Tasks
-
Led strategy for consumer-facing websites (Tiles, Flooring, Plumbing, Bathrooms).
-
Integrated three acquired businesses into CMO with minimal disruption; retained brand strength while leveraging group capabilities.
-
5 website into 3 project, I successfully led two acquired websites into 3 with Plumbing Superstore delivering market leading conversion of 2.9% in addition to the highest within the group.
-
Championed CX innovations including cut-sample journey, new branding, and visual enhancements.
-
Praised consistently as an excellent role model with strong team engagement.
-
Increased net margins by 3% in Tiles and 2.5% in Plumbing through commercial optimisation.

PGL Travel Group – Retail Brand Consultant reporting to the CEO & Marketing Director
May 2021 – Apr 2022 (initial 6-month contract extended to 12)
Achievements/Tasks
-
Consultative role advising the CEO, Marketing Director and Head of Product Development.
-
Increased retail sales +33% and bar revenues +112% (vs 2019) led complete uniform overhaul, and developed new family-focused CX strategies.

HEAD OF RETAIL – STORES AND CONCESSIONS, 70 LOCATIONS WITHIN THE U.K. & IRELAND
GANT CLOTHING – A GLOBAL PREMIUM LIFESTYLE BRAND
-
A member of the Senior team, reporting to the MD and accountable for annual Gross Sales in excess of £70m across stores and wholesale concessions within Selfridges, Harrods, John Lewis, House of Fraser, Brown Thomas and Fenwicks.
-
Delivered 3 successive years of record profit (+153%, +30%, +18%)
-
Full P&L responsibility with a payroll budget of £3.5m and each year delivered a saving to budget for all controllable costs.
-
Highest leadership engagement score (85%) and NPS (+67% vs UK average +32%).
-
High operational excellence delivered within the U.K. chosen to Pilot global initiatives including Click & Collect, iPads in stores, and new store concepts.
-
Excellent project management and collaborative working with the GANT Global and U.K. Teams, in addition to external contractors to ensure the smooth relocation of the Global Flagship Store at Regent Street London.
-
High customer engagement and training resulting in 4 successive years of increments for conversion, ATV & UPT.
-
Strong collaboration with the HR & L&D teams to devise, trial, launch and embed a full suite of tools for store personnel supported with a 6 module L&D programme for store and assistant managers leading to an annual GANT Academy graduation.
-
Great evidence of succession planning, resulting in the Regent Street store manager and Edinburgh store manager becoming regional managers for the brand.
-
Chair of the weekly trade meetings with key depts, B&M, Marketing, Ecom, Visual and OPS all present, strong commercial acumen & decision making displayed with the ability to listen and influence at a high level.

HEAD OF SALES - E-COMMERCE, RETAIL & WHOLESALE. (BOARD LEVEL)
RAGING BULL CLOTHING - Ex England Rugby Captain, Phil Vickery's Premium Menswear Clothing Brand
-
Record sales and profit achieved within 2 successive years with sales at +32% LFL Year 1 & +29% LFL Year 2.
-
£2m new business through partnerships - Zalando, NEXT LABELS, Stitch Fix, Myers department Stores (Australia), 30 wholesale accounts & Agent.
-
Online sales grew +38% and +32% LFL through improved digital marketing and site operations.
-
Increased conversion (+0.5%), AOV (+£8), and UPT (+0.2).
-
Transitioned House of Fraser concessions to a wholesale model, expanding footprint from 28 to 51 locations, doubling market share within the House of Fraser and delivered an additional £0.5m in profit to Raging Bull.
-
Improved business processes, commercial reporting, visual guidelines, brand launches and trading calendars.
-
Working within influential stakeholders, Phil Vickery the founder, 3 investors (Nick Beighton CEO ASOS, John King - Ex CEO House Of Fraser, Stefan Cassar - Ex FD House of Fraser) and Shannon MD of whom this was the third time working with over the last 23 years.

RETAIL DIRECTOR - E-COMMERCE, RETAIL & WHOLESALE. (BOARD LEVEL)
FLY53 CLOTHING – A MENSWEAR APPAREL BRAND.
-
Responsible for the implementation of the strategy from board meetings for all channels, E-Commerce, Retail and Wholesale. Year 1 growth +110% & 59% LFL, Year 2 +52% & +28% LFL.
-
Strong leadership of the E-commerce team to improve commercial and operational practices that resulted in +88% LFL growth in the first year and +60% within the second. In addition, we added an EBAY store for better stock management and improved full price sales on the FLY53 E-commerce store.
-
Strong relationships established with brand partners within House of Fraser that led to a concession agreement to roll out a minimum of 7 concessions per year.
-
Working within the Creative Director (Founder) we selected a store concept agency and produced a concept that delivered a reduction in capital investment of 75% whilst increasing the product density by 25%.
-
Improved operational, commercial and visual delivery through the introduction of guidelines to support concession managers, to educate, coach and to be able to measure ‘what right looks like’ for the brand.

AREA MANAGER – NORTH OF ENGLAND/WALES AND FOR ALL OUTLETS NATIONWIDE.
FAT FACE CLOTHING – A LIFESTYLE CLOTHING BRAND.
-
Accountable for an Area Store complement of 25 stores and the 8 outlet stores, with a turnover in excess of £32m, 380 employees and a payroll budget of 2.8m.
-
Over a 3-year average, the area delivered the highest LFL performance within the business, savings Vs all controllable costs for each year and the highest Mystery Shop score within the business of 83%.
-
Great emphasis in creating a high performing team from working collaboratively with the L&D department to introduce, Myers Briggs, Belbin, Tuckman’s high performing team and the nine box grid models. This resulted in high team engagement with an area NPS score +18% V’s the company average.
-
Great evidence of succession planning within the area through developmental objectives and coaching with the promotion of 2 store managers to cluster managers who then went on to become area managers.
-
Respected and trusted within the business to have been chosen to lead some business wide projects, stock loss prevention and the Outlet project to for better management of terminal stock and the implementation of consistency across all areas of the Outlet business. The outlet project delivered a +16% YTD improvement and +29% Vs the company average.

AREA MANAGER
FJ RETAIL (FRANCHISE & OWN STORES) - LEVI’S, TIMBERLAND & CATERPILLAR
-
Fully accountable for 12 stores with a combined turnover of 16m.
-
First year trade reversed from –2% to level within six months and the second year, +18% LFL delivered.
-
The area achieved the highest conversion rates within the Timberland and LEVI’s brands in the U.K. delivering 14% and 17% respectively.
-
Through great retail and operational processes, stock loss within the area for Timberland was –0.34% and LEVI’s -0.67%
-
With my peer’s we collaborated and wrote 4 development workshops and delivered to all 60 store and assistant managers, Time Mgt & Leadership, Effective Communication & Presentation skills, SMART objective setting and Coaching & managing great customer service.
-
The project for implementing the Timberland franchise stores within the business, along with the range planning and buy was given to myself resulting in the successful opening of 2 stores within a year.