Andy O’Brien

Responsibilities

• Lead 3 major infrastructure transformation projects across ambient, frozen and fresh areas by removing legacy system dependencies
• Drive enhancements in systems, processes, and revenue while reducing waste
• Facilitate team alignment to define requirements and robust transition critical paths, leading workshops, collaborating with Architects, IT Partners, business users, vendors, and senior stakeholder management pre and post-implementations

Achievements

• Successfully installed new Blue Yonder technology seamlessly into existing infrastructure.
• Drove cost benefits through improved reporting, inventory management, product availability, and new system forecasting functionality
• Delivered 'Vehicle Scaling' (defined pallet supplier ordering) project which represented 70% of all ambient volume
• Delivered complex transition of wholesale customer orders, warehouse picks and transportation 'Direct from RDC' (ambient) incentive to reduce delivery lead time
• Resolved post-implementation incidents effectively, applying leadership, technical and commercial expertise

• 4 short-term assignments: proposing merchandise assortment, supply chain, sourcing and costing improvements, and designing introductory plans to approach established national retailers

Responsibilities

• Line manage remote teams; planning, marketing, content, off shore customer service, and external partner relationship and budgets
• Define commercial activity including revenue and marketing spend targets
• Recruitment; on and off boarding, and lead individual performance reviews and development plans

Achievements

• Set short and medium-term strategies for align function's objectives and introduced weekly structure to ways of working
• Overhauled product, assortment, customer engagement, selling price, and promotional strategy to maximise trading-period sales growth in 2021 to £5.1m, +175% on year.
• Delivered global drop-ship growth by directing systems integrations across new 12 platforms, including expansion into EU, North America and Africa
• Optimised customer journey by identifying and removing 1,000+ slow-selling items to enrich overall product assortment through data analysis
• Applied analytics and automated manual tasks to sharpen organisational efficiency
• Planned, integrated and tested 'Yotpo' e-commerce loyalty marketing product
• Managed pay-per-click, search optimisation, social media, affiliate activity and agencies.

Responsibilities

• Directed apparel company merchandise and planning teams that generated annual revenue of over £200m, trading in 165+ stores across Asia (APAC)
• Oversee store expansion plan into new and existing APAC territories
• Determined company strategies and trade plans for cost and markdown planning, repeat orders and management of product end-of-life

Achievements

• Adapted quickly to new culture, supporting teams by demonstrating flexibility, respect and willingness to help.
• Improved open-to-buy process, reporting and built modelling templates for efficiency and quicker commercial decisions
• Introduced sales stock and forecasting (WSSI) on key lines for weekly issue detection and resolution
• Streamlined allocation workflows to maximise use of limited inventory to manage stock, logistics, and site expectations for 50 store region expansion
• Recommended weekly actions to senior management on stock commitment performance
• Successfully trialled new mark-down strategy that saved £100,000 in costs, increased store stuff efficiency, and improved customer shopping experience
• Presented impactful revised season-end KPI analysis by product and category to support and challenge future strategy

• Coordinated short-term assignments and managed data readiness for migration projects.
• Developed exception reporting and specified reporting suite requirements as end-user.
• Scoped 3 client requirements and produced business cases, feasibility studies, and road maps.

Achievements

• Led cross-functional team to successful project completion
• Transitioned product development to agile methodology and realised £80k saving and shorten delivery lead-time
• Introduced regular senior stakeholder sign-off and communications, accelerating product approval and addressing issues and concerns
• Performed gap/SWOT analysis, identifying areas of underperformance and inefficiency
• Created strategic and tactical solutions with analytical tool-sets for better decisions

Achievements

• Seconded support for new NDC through first peak trading and managed forecasts daily, and given real-time decision making authority
• Protected availability and customer delivery proposition by aligning inbound and outbound volumetric forecasts to staffing needs
• Resolved 100 inbound trailer backlog items using commercial and customer insight.
• Planned head office buying team visits and shared best practices for future planning improvements.
• Reduced cost and delivery risk by addressing root causes of previous behaviours.

Achievements

• Created new planning team as decision maker across multi-functional activity
• Set weekly revenue targets for 70+ departments (£1bn annually), then traded and re-forecasted quarterly officially.
• Planned and executed tactical promotional activity, clearing stock and driving sales strategically and reactively.
• Co-ordinated and delivered large-scale events, end-of-season markdowns, and £30+ million cyber days through detailed planning, execution, and monitoring.
• Supported architects design for M&S.com re-platforming with new promotional mechanics: multi-buys, free gift, flash sales.
• Created volumetric model by product type for logistics staffing and operational planning.
• Chaired weekly trading and activity reviews using sales and customer data to find opportunity and circulate trade summary to senior Directors

• Transformation: SAP Implementation Lead/Project Manager
• International Commercial Supply Chain Manager (MENA)
• Senior Merchandise Planning Manager (Women's Division)
• Store Operations / Merchandiser (Apparel)