Martin Taylor

PERSONAL OVERVIEW I'm a highly experienced Senior Buyer and leader with over 27 years’ experience at Wilko, 2 years supporting and helping others as a self employed Buying Consultant in both retail and wholesale and more recently, 3 years as a Lead Vendor Management Buyer and Purchasing Manager. Overlapping this activity over the last 6 years with the creation and running of my own small online furniture and home décor business. Experience: 3 years Vendor Management/Purchasing Manager in the wholesale education sector. 13 years as a retail Buyer and Senior Buyer. 3 years as a Senior New Product Development Manager. 8 years in Marketing. 3 years in Retail Management. 2 years consulting 6 years creating and running my own small online business. I have a very strong track record of delivering impressive product, range, and financial improvement. Consistently delivering sales, margin and cash profit growth on all categories that I touch. I've always been motivated by a genuine passion for product, having an excellent eye for detail, coupled with a personal desire to continuously drive financial improvement, efficiencies and solve problems. I have a flair for new product development and range building as well as the creative thinking of new solutions and cost saving initiatives. Vast range of product knowledge and experience as a Buyer, having bought over 40 differing product categories from furniture to photo frames, electrical to DIY and home textiles to housewares. I genuinely do enjoy problem solving and improving processes with a simple, considered, and logical approach with a full supply chain end to end understanding. Quite simply - I love to get results! WHAT I DO & HELP SOLVE Consistently deliver sales, profit & margin results, exceeding targets Save costs & simplify process Boost existing & fix non-performing categories With a structured/strategic approach Develop new product, improve choice, tiering & innovation Lead & coach Buying teams to success Build, strengthen & manage supplier relationships With a true end to end understanding from sourcing to shelf and a relentless drive to improve in all that I do.