Insight Team and Independent Consultancies
The Insight Team
Dan Munford, Partner, Insight Research
Dan Munford is a Partner and co-owner of UK based convenience & petroleum retail specialists Insight Research. A "UCL" British and International History graduate, Dan is an extremely well connected figure in the industry who invests a considerable amount of time travelling the world tracing the development of the very latest retail formats.
He is an international convenience & petroleum retail expert and regular speaker at international convenience industry conferences in the UK, Eastern Europe, Ireland, South Africa and USA like the NACS Show. In addition to working in international store format research & benchmarking, Dan has 14 years consumer and trade market research experience and this brings a useful consumer focus to his work.
Under Dan's leadership Insight has developed a long term relationship with NACS, the international association for convenience & petroleum retail and he is a permanent member of the NACS International Committee. Insight are European Parter for NACS.
Nicholas Scherzer, Store Review Director, Insight Research
Nicholas Scherzer spent 11 years with the SPAR Group of South Africa, recognised as one of the best SPAR operators globally and established as a South African market leader.
During this time he held senior positions both at retail and within distribution centres. Nick’s career encompasses the management of the daily operation of convenience stores and supermarket formats in food retail, from store level through to senior regional management roles. Both within corporately owned retail divisions and within symbol group warehousing and distribution, working alongside the logistical and supply chain channel of food retail.
He has extensive knowledge of the operational issues and the dynamics of retail organisations with experience in wide range of retail issues from format development and design through to category management with strong commercial experience and solid financial background. Nick is responsible for running Insight’s store review business and since joining Insight in September 2009, he has worked on a number of Insight events and projects with UK and international clients. Nick is passionate about retail. He has a highly developed understanding of market dynamics and brand positioning and a keen understanding of the issues through the supply chain and onto the convenience retail shop floor.
Independent Associated Consultants/Consultancies
Insight also work closely with a "knowledge bank" of industry specialists which includes some of the most respected and experienced convenience and petroleum retail experts in the industry. They are Peter Segal, Stephanie Rice, Peter Kealy, Jon Arnold, Veronica Alexander and Jeff Murphy.
Peter Segal
Peter is a highly respected consultant in the UK FMCG sector with over 10 years experience in advising leading edge retailers and manufacturers. He has a track record of developing, and successfully implementing, retail strategy through influencing multiple stakeholders and focusing on relevant customer solutions.
In his time working for HIM and SRCG, Peter has become a specialist in the convenience channel and has worked with BP, M&S and Musgraves on substantial retail projects which involved the implementation of category management through training and coaching, store development through new business models and facilitation of action planning workshops with supplier partners. Projects with BP and Circle K enabled Peter to take best practice category management to the USA, South Africa, Poland, Spain, Germany and Hong Kong.
Peter has spent much of the last 10 years advising suppliers to the convenience channel and has managed category leadership programmes for suppliers such as Diageo, Cuisine de France, Heinz and Gallaher. Capability development was a key part of these programmes so Peter was able to use his training and coaching experience to develop the skills and knowledge of the convenience teams.
Stephanie Rice
Stephanie has over 20 years’ experience of the Convenience Retail Sector, nine at Board level as Marketing Director of Musgrave-Budgens-Londis. Stephanie runs a successful agency specializing in community and social marketing and is able to bring strong facilitation skills to our clients.
Stephanie has an impressive track record of delivering tangible results through innovative strategies. Stephanie’s expertise as a marketeer is complemented by a very real understanding of the convenience-store customer. Truly an expert at commissioning and disseminating consumer insight, Stephanie is able to research, design and implement marketing and store-layout strategies to drive profitable sales. Stephanie has presented at several international conferences as well as judging high profile retail industry awards. She is a graduate from London University with a degree in French and German.
Jon Arnold
Jon has over 20 years retail experience, holding a number of senior positions in the Convenience, Forecourt and Trading divisions of Sainsbury's Supermarkets Ltd.
As Head of Trading for Sainsbury's Convenience Division, he made a significant contribution to the development and implementation of their Convenience growth strategy. He oversaw every category range review, and developed a focused promotional strategy and events calendar. Jon also helped develop the store blueprints for all of the new "Local" formats.
Jon was also Head of Sainsbury's Petrol Forecourts, where he developed the Fuel and Retail visions for their forecourt estate, including format development, operational improvement and legal compliance. As part of his remit, he also negotiated the contract for the supply of fuel to Sainsbury's, and oversaw the daily pricing on the forecourts to manage a profitable return.
Jon has a long track record as a Category Manager, managing a number of different Commercial teams. This role focussed on profitable category planning, and developing strong buying teams with solid commercial acumen. His trading experience covers fresh and ambient foods, as well as tobacco and health & beauty.
Veronica Alexander
Veronica Alexander has had fuel running through her veins since she started working for Mobil Oil U.K. over 20 years ago and, as Head of Fuel for both Safeway and Somerfield, has experience in both the Wholesale and Refinery sectors. In 2004 she negotiated one of the biggest Retail Fuel contracts ever to be signed in the UK.
Veronica’s career has encompassed all aspects of the Fuel Supply Chain from Supply and Logistics, to Operations, Marketing and Purchasing. Throughout her career she has consistently delivered sales and profits through effective management of budgets and people. Her expertise ranges from feasibility studies for acquisition projects and site selection to developing and negotiating procurement strategies for Fuel and Forecourt Products and services.
G. (Jeff ) M.Murphy.
Jeff has more than 30 years experience involving a multitude of leadership positions across a wide variety of industries and global markets. While working in corporate, his experience ranged from VP Business Development for a global retail design firm, to the executive position of Marketing Manager for a global fuels and convenience retailer with responsibility for the Southern Hemisphere.
As Managing Partner of The Murphy Group LLC, Jeff has assisted in global expansion efforts of retailers, suppliers and trade associations; has provided strategic consulting advice to convenience retailers around the world and has guided the Marketing Plan creation, including consumer research and the ultimate value propositions. He has also provided advice on global, emerging marketing prioritization; economic modeling; mergers/acquisitions and market entry strategies. Jeff is keenly active in his community and served on the Executive committee of not for profit children and health-oriented organizations. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Management from Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia, PA.
Deborah Robinson
A passionate food marketer with over 25 years retail experience. As Director of Food Marketing at the UK's Co-operative Group, Deborah developed formats including layout, macro space allocation, merchandising and design for petrol forecourts, convenience stores and supermarkets . She delivered a programme of over 700 refits per annum for three consecutive years delivering significant return on investment . The Co-operative Group won the prestigious "Convenience chain of the YEAR" award for the last two years.
While at the Co-operative Group Deborah developed a 3000 plus own branded product range with clear quality tiers providing customers with real choice and value for money. She introduced competitive advantage with a number of unique sub brands including "Grown by us" and "Truly Irresistible" delivering improved productivity and profitability. Deborah is committed to food quality, safety and integrity and serves on the Council of Campden BRC, an authority in food and drink research and is also a member of The Food Ethics Council.
She is best known for her brave and pioneering approach to "Responsible Retailing". Deborah developed the first BUAV approved toiletries back in the late 80's. She introduced the first front of pack nutritional labelling and higher welfare standards for chicken, famously appearing with celebrity chefs Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fernley Whittingstall on the UK's Channel 4 TV. Deborah has developed long term sustainable trading relationships for key commodities in Africa, India and Central America, using scenario planning to develop long term thinking and "customer journey " techniques to deliver short term goals.
She is well practiced in all aspects of marketing communications including TV and a wealth of experience of business integration most recently with Somerfield. Deborah has a real understanding of customer responses to business change and how to manage these effectively.
Peter Kealy
Peter Kealy was formerly Managing Director of BWG Foods Ltd Retail Division and Managing Director of SPAR Ireland and Chairman of MACE Ireland.
Previously he held the positions of Managing Director of J&J Hasletts Ltd Northern Ireland, 2000-2003, and Appleby Westward Ltd UK 1997-2000, both subsidiary companies of the BWG Group.
Peter joined BWG in 1983. Since this time he has held positions as Sales and Marketing Director SPAR Ireland, Development Director SPAR Ireland and was appointed BWG Group Development Director in 2003, a position he held until his appointment as Managing Director Retail Division in 2006.
Prior to joining BWG Foods Ltd in 1983, Peter worked with both Tesco Ireland and H Williams Supermarkets. He is a graduate of University College Dublin with a degree in Economics.
Throughout his career with BWG Peter was centrally involved in the strategic development of BWG's portfolio of retail symbol brands such as SPAR and MACE. Most notably, he was responsible for the introduction of both the EUROSPAR supermarket concept and the SPAR Express forecourt convenience store format to the Irish grocery market in the mid 1990's.
Since that time SPAR Ireland has enjoyed annualised double digit retail sales growth and the SPAR brand has become synonymous with world class, leading edge and innovative convenience store retailing.
BWG Group is the owner and operator of the SPAR and MACE franchise in Ireland with 689 stores nationwide. SPAR is Ireland's leading convenience store with 457 stores across three formats; SPAR, EUROSPAR and SPAR Express. They have a combined retail sales €1.6 billion. This year SPAR Ireland entered the top five in the global SPAR rankings.
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