Lewis Houlston

As a National Account Manager at Colart, I partner with leading UK retailers to expand market share for our globally recognized art brands. My role centers on strategic joint business planning, trade marketing innovation, and delivering sustainable growth for both Colart and our retail partners. Key Focus Areas Strategic Partnerships: Building collaborative relationships with mass retail buyers to align Colart’s premium product portfolios with consumer demand trends. Commercial Execution: Leading ranging, promotions, and in-store activation strategies that elevate art category performance. Sustainability-Driven Growth: Leveraging Colart’s B Corp™ status to create value through eco-conscious product innovation and retail initiatives.

Bringing our product range and wonderful designs to retail partners all over the world - Scoping, pitching to and onboarding new customers. - Working with licenses to bring curated ranges to life. - Made to order specialist

Managing a team of Project Managers to deliver growth and expand the business reach in given territories. Managing the projects of new customer to ensure a firm understanding of process before baton passing to the team and coaching and supporting through the project to ensure consistent service levels are met.

This roles is about building relationships with my customers and securing orders through proactive product suggestions and reactive tender processes. I have actively been involved in the buying process from start to finish, sourcing new suppliers and also negotiating costs from both suppliers and with customers. I have experience in handling high quantity and also complex products and have imported these to the USA and Australia. My current role includes managing multiple accounts a small team of Project Managers to deliver projects on time whilst continuing to provide innovation and support to all of the customers we look after.