Case Studies
Tasties of Chester Ltd – Food To Go
Tasties of Chester Ltd – Food To Go
Due to my background in the food to go category and UK major retailers, I was tasked with achieving this milestone. At this point in time, provenance was a major focus for UK supermarkets. I collaborated with the product development team and designed a range of products using only Welsh ingredients and designed a brand called “Food Handmade in Wales.”
I then approached Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Morrisons and Asda and presented a commercial proposal that met their margin requirements. I secured product listings in Tesco, Asda and Morrisons within their all their Welsh stores resulting in a forecasted annual turnover increase of £1.3m.
Now the business had the opportunity to be considered for the full UK own label tenders when they take place, which is usually every April.
Philip Morris International (PMI) – Tobacco
In 2014 PMI decided to launch their own employed field sales force to cover over 30,000 independent retailers and I was tasked with running this project as part of the leadership team.
The team and I interviewed, trained and deployed over 220 people into the UK market over a 3-month period and then I took direct leadership of 1/3 of the headcount.
Within the first 6 months my team grew volume in a declining market by stealing market share from competitor brands, increased the number of stockists and importantly grew PMI’s market share by 3% equating to an increased revenue of £4.2m.
Due to the success of the region, three members of my team secured promotions and relocated to London to be part of the UK key account team.
Philip Morris International (PMI) – Vape
PMI like other tobacco businesses realised in 2017 that the vaping sector was becoming more dominant in the UK and volume sales of cigarettes were declining faster than ever.
With products that were already achieving success in other countries and converting smokers to safer alternatives, the decision was made to launch the same products in the UK.
Due to my previous success within the key account and field sales force teams, I was tasked with the UK launch and making PMI a leader in this product sector.
I selected the highest performers from the UK field sales team and tasked them with getting the IQOS product range stocked in 150 high profile vape stores inside the M25 within 6 weeks. This was achieved in just over a month and then we increased the team and extended the coverage to all main cities in the UK.
By 2019 the IQOS portfolio was stocked by vape stores, independent convenience stores and key accounts all over the UK with a target that by 2021 more than half of PMI’s profit would come from the vaping portfolio and not combustible cigarettes. Just a few years later the product is having great success. Take a look at www.iqos.com