This weekend I was at Cadwell Park in Lincolnshire. The venue was host to the biggest motorsport property in the UK, the British Superbikes (BSB). The event was different, because as well as being supported by other motorbike classes, BSB hosted the Trofeo Abarth 500 GB, a new one-make car series. It could have all [...]
After graduating in 1994, I went to work at one of Procter & Gamble’s major global competitors, the consumer goods giant, Unilever. I started at the Victorian sales office of Lever Rexona, the division responsible for detergents like Surf and Domestos and personal products like Sunsilk Shampoo and Brut aftershave.
As National Account Executive, I reported to the National Account Manager for GHPL, the largest supermarket group. My role was primarily data analysis – calculating market share trends using information collected at point fo sale from supermarket scanners. As well as being used to determine optimal ranges and promotional campaigns, the information was used to build shelf layouts using space management software.
In September of 1995, I took the position of Demand Planner in Lever Rexona’s head office north of Sydney. The role was to forecast the sales of over 400 products in Australia and New Zealand for production planning purposes using software models. Later, I was involved with one of the first ever ‘Vendor Managed Inventory’ programs and other projects to significantly reduce safety stock and improve forcast accuracy by developing new software.
In 1998 I became National Account Manager for Franklins, the 3rd biggest player in the Australian market. During this time I worked on several innovation projects including one to reduce promotional spending by analysing past promotional performance and another using long term scenario planning to determine product strategy.
I resigned from Unilever in March 1999.
