Speakers
Malcolm Walker, Founder & CEO, Iceland Foods Ltd
Malcolm Walker was born in Yorkshire in 1946, and began his career as a trainee manager with Woolworths. They dismissed him for founding Iceland as a sideline in 1970, with an investment of just £30.
Malcolm was Chairman and CEO of Iceland through 30 years of continuous sales growth, in all but one of which the company also increased its profits. By 2000 it had grown into a national chain of over 700 shops with £2 billion of sales and 22,000 employees.
Malcolm was fired for the second time in his life in January 2001, and promptly founded a new frozen food retail business, Cooltrader. But Iceland struggled under its new management and Malcolm returned as CEO when the company was taken private in February 2005. Under his leadership morale and performance have been transformed to make Iceland once again one of the greatest success stories in UK food retailing, enjoying four consecutive years of double-digit like-for-like sales growth. It is currently undertaking a major opening programme of 70 new stores, creating some 3,500 new jobs, and has been accredited as one of the Best Companies to Work For in the UK.
Malcolm has many other business interests ranging from food manufacturing and distribution to property. Outside work, his greatest enthusiasms are for his home, garden and family, good food and wine, ski-ing, sailing and shooting.
Hussein Lalani, Commercial Director, 99p stores
In January 2001 Hussein opened his first 99p Store in Holloway Road, London. Five years later 99p Stores was recognised as the fastest growing company in the midlands and the fastest growing retailer in the UK according to Fast Track 100.
Today 99p Stores has 80 stores nationwide. Eleven of these stores are Ex-Woolworths' stores and have been opened so far in 2009.
This year 99p Stores' aggressive store opening program will take them to over 100 stores with annualised turnover in excess of £250M
Hussein was educated at Haberdasher's Askes' School and read Law at University in London. After University he started a company marketing his own brand of cosmetics and toiletries which were manufactured in the UK for the Middle East and African markets. He exited the business by selling the brands to his Middle East partners.
He returned to the UK from Dubai in 2000 to start up 99p Stores with his father and brother.
Mike Watkins - Senior Manager Retailer Services, Nielsen
Mike graduated from Loughborough University with an Economics degree, joined the CWS Store Management training scheme and then worked for Co-operative retailers in various line management position across buying, marketing and merchandising.
He then joined Nielsen and in1995 was appointed Manager of Trade Relations with responsibility for the Nielsen commercial relationship with all retailers in the UK.
From 2001 he took on the role of Senior Manager, Retailer Services where he led a number of retail projects for Nielsen including retail and consumer research, price research and strategic planning, both within the UK and for Europe aswell as managing the UK Retailer Services team.
Today he heads up the Retailer and Business Insight team for Nielsen and is also responsible for all new business and commercial development with food and non food retailers in the UK.
Mike is married with a 8-year-old daughter who also enjoys store visits on Saturday afternoons if they can be turned into lucrative shopping trips for Mother and Daughter!
Joe Morris, Operations Director at TJ Morris, trading as Home Bargains
Joe Morris, 49, graduated from Warwick University with a degree in engineering science and spent 20 years in the automation industry programming, installing and then selling industrial robotics. He also gained an MBA from Cranfield Business School and worked and lived across the world. In 2000, he joined his elder brother, Tom Morris, who founded TJ Morris Ltd in 1976. As a schoolboy, Joe was actually Tom's first ‘Saturday lad'!
Adam Donaldson, CEO of ESA Market Research
Adam Donaldson, CEO of ESA Market Research, has a background in economics and food consulting stretching back 15 years and has advised numerous retailers and manufacturers on consumer demand strategies over that time.
Denys Shortt, Founder & CEO, DCS Europe plc
Denys Shortt started DCS in 1994 and has since grown the company to over £100m sales. He was recently ranked in The Grocer Top 10 Power List for Wholesalers. In his younger days Denys was an England international hockey player and he has since become serial entrepreneur winning many awards including Entrepreneur of the Year. Denys also started Enable Software - now a £3m software company which provides web-based software to
clients such as Sainsbury's and Asda.
Nick Beresford, Value Retail Team Leader, Procter & Gamble
Nick Beresford has been working for Procter & Gamble for the last 10 years, since May-08 he has been the team leader for the P&G UK value retail channel, based in P&G's Harrogate office. This includes customers such as Lidl, Netto, Wilkinsons and Iceland.
Previously, he ran the P&G Professional business in Canada based in Toronto, for just over 3 years.
After graduating from Durham University with a Masters in Engineering in 1998 he joined P&G in the graduate sales division managing the South West region.
He and his wife, Jen, currently live in Harrogate with their two sons, Jack, who is almost three and their new edition Harry, who is just 3 weeks old. (at least at the time of writing). He enjoys fishing, golf and football. He is also a Spurs supporter still believes they will win the Premier league!
Marcus Wood, Commercial Director, Rowan International
Marcus Wood is in charge of Business Development for Rowan International. Marcus has a long career in grocery having started his own frozen food business in 1981, aged 21. His business grew to include a retail delicatessen, a frozen food manufacturing company and a successful catering and events business which he sold shortly before the onset of the 1991 recession.
In the mid 1990's he became a management consultant through his firm Fleming Banfu International, working closely with scores of blue chip firms including Marks and Spencer, Allied Bakeries, Whitbread, Sara Lee and Pret A Manger.
In addition to his work for Rowan Marcus is a selected Parliamentary candidate and hopes to become an MP at the next election. He divides his time between homes in London and his constituency base in South Devon.
