Director
Milnet Ltd
Total years of experience :33 years, 10 Months
Provision of a wide range of management consulting services with particular experience in the retail and mail order sectors.
New start-up company created to exploit significant opportunity in the sale of bedding plants by mail order.
Highly successful disruptive outsourced business model created achieved £1m sales and recruiting 35, 000 new customers in the first year of trading. Catastrophic and unforeseeable quality problems from key supplier resulted in company failure at the end of 2013.
Appointed as Managing Director of Gardening Direct to turn the company around following a disastrous early spring 2011 season.
During my absence from Gardening Direct a new group marketing director had been appointed, new marketing team created and new shipping company appointed. In addition poor forecasting had led to massive overproduction, virtually no product development had been carried out, many of the critical links to the supply chain had been lost and a non-plant orientation had been developed. The net result was below budget sales, customers stating they ‘would never purchase again’ and substantial product write off with resultant reduced profit.
Major achievements include
• Dramatically improving customer service with spring 2012 complaint rates below 3% compared with 10%+ in 2011
• Created and introduced customer contact strategy designed to drive customers from single buyer status to multi buyer
• Recruited new marketing team
• Recruited new grower and reorganised Jersey based production team
• Created and monitored ‘complaints reporting system’ liaising with delivery company to improve quality of delivery
• Created clear product costing model. From this created monthly and weekly retail offers which ensured margins were maintained
• Created clear link between forecasting and growing thus avoiding large overstocks
• Reduced cost of new customer acquisition from £10 to £5.23 (below Life Time Value)
• Stemmed the tide of customers ‘opting out’ online by reducing numbers of emails and increasing relevance
• Created a profitable online PPC campaign
• Re-established sales through key online affiliates/voucher sites such as Groupon and Wowcher
• Created monitoring process for all refunds
• Established trade sales through Crocus, Betterware and Easy Life
• Managed the loss of Low Value Consignment Relief (LVCR) and the resultant increase in retail prices by 20%
Retail consultancy services.
Clients included Flying Brands PLC, Readers Digest, Easy Life and Betterware
Appointed as Director of the Garden Division responsible for three major brands; Gardening Direct (£12 million turnover), Garden Bird Supplies (£4 million turnover) and Sarah Raven’s Kitchen Garden (£800, 000 turnover).
Flying Brands was a multi brand and multi channel retailer with growing and despatch facilities in Jersey (Channel Islands) and head offices in Chelmsford, Essex. Its two major brands included Gardening Direct (sells 131 million bedding plants per year) and Flying Flowers (sells flower bouquets by post and courier). Its operations were divided into two divisions; The Gardening Division (Gardening Direct, Garden Bird Supplies and Sarah Raven) and the Entertainment/Gifts Division (Flying Flowers, Benhams, Listen 2).
Major achievements include:
• Increased Gardening Direct’s turnover by 10% 2008 to 2009.
• Increased profitability of Gardening Direct by 26% and Garden Bird Supplies by 16% 2008 to 2009.
• Increased Gardening Direct customer database by approximately 24% in 2008 to 2009.
• Created a programme of new product development resulting in being first to market with new products and developing exclusive lines.
• Successfully created and drove significant customer recruitment programmes with six figure spend and increased Gardening Direct’s total 0-12 month customer file to approximately 315, 000 (15% increase).
• Introduced and ran a successful PR campaign.
• Significantly improved quality and accuracy of promotional material.
• Introduced new Fruit and Vegetable range, Bulb Range, Power Equipment Range and Greenhouse Range.
• Created and managed email marketing campaigns.
• Developed new product database system.
Flying Brands Nov. 2007 - February 2008
Appointed to create a dynamic turnaround plan the garden division which had been in decline for 4 years.
Produced plan, presented this to the main board and was subsequently hired to implement it.
Scotts of Stow 2007
Appointed to create a plan for the introduction of additional on-line sales channels to include eBay, Amazon etc. Produced plan, and was appointed to implement it.
Peacock Blue 2007
Provided general mail order advice and project work to the CEO for the relaunch of this home furnishing mail order brand.
Queenswood Garden & Home Mail Order Business
1995 - 2007
· Created a unique, high quality niche mail order company (Queenswood Garden & Home Products). Drove sales from zero to £1, 000, 000. Successfully sold the company.
· Created a well recognized retail brand name. Registered Queenswood Garden and Home as a UK Trade Mark.
· Developed a unique range of exclusive mail order products. Margins achieved on these products exceeded 60%.
· Created a fully relational database system for under £10, 000.
· Produced mail order catalogues with the widest range (750 products) of garden products available in the UK.
· Extended peak trading season from 3 months to 8 months
· Achieved over 5% mailing response rate from the company house file.
· Achieved high levels of customer loyalty (42% of customers made more than one purchase).
· Set high quality targets resulting in high levels of customer satisfaction and product return rates less than 1%.
· Achieved repeat buyers of over 10% on internet sales.
· Created and managed a fully equipped and staffed telesales office dealing with up to 40, 000 orders per year.
· Created one of the first fully transactional garden products web sites in the UK for under £1, 000.
· Increased internet sales from 0 to 40% of turnover.
· Created a customer database of 2, 250, 000 records.
· Developed unique product performance software, dramatically improving product selection, catalogue design and performance.
· Created a bespoke purchasing system that saved the company £15, 000 to £20, 000 per annum.
· Negotiated joint venture deal resulting in an additional £34, 000 worth of sales per annum.
· Recruited, trained and managed a team of 30 people to provide customers with a top class retail and mail order experience.
· Produced annual corporate plans for discussion and approval by the board of directors.
· Created an email marketing programme with over 12, 000 customers being emailed once a week.
Queenswood Garden Centre Retail Business
1992 - 2002
· Entrepreneurial purchase of Garden Centre Company from receivers in 1992. Management of all aspects of the business driving sales from zero to over £1, 000, 000. Successfully sold Garden Centre retail operation for over £1, 000, 000.
· Increased Garden Centre rental and franchise income by 100% through the addition of landscaping materials, pet shop, restaurant, furniture and gift franchises, and the rental of office space and domestic property.
· Negotiated industry leading supplier terms including discount rates and extended payment periods of up to 6 months, significantly improving margins and cash flow.
· Increased company gross margin from 27% to 57%.
· Introduced NVQ retail staff training programme resulting in substantially improved shop floor customer service.
· Purchased development land and managed the construction of new office block, overflow car park for 200 vehicles and ornamental lake complete with 50ft geyser. This dramatically improved local customer awareness, increased company rental income and ensured maximum sales were achieved for this seasonal business.
· Successfully promoted Queenswood Garden Centre through year-long events calendar including the creation of a local garden competition, Christmas craft fairs, customer loyalty scheme, special event nights etc. Results were substantial increases in customer footfall and substantial free publicity generated in local newspaper and radio.
· Created joint venture with Pershore College for running professional gardening training courses on-site. Resulted in additional income stream of approximately £25, 000 per annum.
· Set up manufacturing unit for the production of unique wooden garden furniture (Adirondack Chairs) resulting in additional sales in excess of £10, 000 per annum.
* Success fully won a £15, 000 government grant for the further development of the business.
Recruitment Campaign Manager
· Developed and administered a substantial recruitment campaign which successfully identified 200 top quality graduate employees.
· Developed and implemented a unique poster advertising campaign achieving high awareness and top quality candidate applications.
· Successfully organised three geographically separate two day interview events involving up to 100 people each.
· Created an effective screening system for the appraisal of initial candidates, resulting in a shortlist of 400 from over 5, 000.
· Successfully used and developed psychometric testing system using an external consultant to identify the best candidates during the final selection process.
· Managed a seven figure budget achieving all goals.
Editor ‘Issues’ Corporate Magazine
· Changed magazine from a quarterly black and white to a monthly, full colour multi-page magazine focusing on company success stories and employee features.
· Negotiated external design and print serviced delivering every issue on time and within budget.
· Increased distribution from 1, 000 to 5, 000 copies
· Successfully used in-house email system to gather copy and news from BP staff working worldwide.
· Employed and managed a team of 10 external photographers and copy-writers developing feature articles and news stories.
· Solely in charge of photographic direction, style development and overall quality.
· Brought in-house the design and layout process saving up to £2, 000 per edition.
· Re-branded magazine introducing new name ‘Issues’ and new logo giving the magazine a unique identity.
Course completed inclusive of final dissertation on corporate structure.
2.1 pass with honours