Claire Maddern

Strategic Career Break where i was fortunate to be able to have several trips abroad and at home, caring for my elderly mother and mother in law who both have mobility issues and other health challenges - shopping, cooking, cleaning, taking them to hospital appointments.....

I completed a number of challenges to raise money for charity, 100 mile walk, skipping challenge and swimming 10 miles in 20 days. I also had major surgery myself at the end of 2024 which came with a 3 month recovery period, now that has passed am ready to get back to work.

Variety of roles over 14 years managing teams from 3-8 direct reports and categories with values from £120m to £250m with incremental profit delivery of £35m over that time.

Key team member of the Better Buying Network and the Change Network, scoping and delivering new buying processes and procedures, systems training and best practices across the General Merchandise division.

Division Lead Negotiator for cross category suppliers delivering Group Terms for Tesco.

• Part of the team who transformed the Electrical Category in Asda.. Previously 90% of what had been purchased was through one distributor both branded and own label so a long program of setting up direct accounts with key suppliers, factories and other distributors was necessary. Key FOB work was liaising with Walmart colleagues from the USA, Canada and Mexico to maximise our buying power for the UK and landing killer Black Friday deals to disrupt the competition. Main achievements were getting Apple to agree to a direct account with a shop within shop and supporting stores and customers through the Analogue TV Switch off as it transitioned region by region.

Part of a team of 7 responsible for sourcing Own label products for the UK and Europe -Elkjop, PC City, ElectroWorld, UniEuro, I looked after Computing/Gaming Accessories and SDA. Agreed and launched Kenwood under license on SDA to sit alongside the Hitachi license.

Buying and Marketing, working across all 4 chains - Dixons, Currys, PC World and The Link delivering tailored accessories ranging for each. Key collaboration with the hardware trading teams such as Mobile and Computing to ensure the accessories ranges were in line with hardware releases.

University placement year, business to business social and studio sector, budget planning and spend management, project management and coordination and collaboration with European Colleagues.