What is your career background?

I spent two years working on customer research for Somerfield. After that I moved to its marketing department as marketing controller for more than four years where I concentrated on loyalty, sales promotions and tactical marketing.

I took up my current role at Oxford, Swindon & Gloucester Co-op in July last year.
 

What are your main responsibilities?

I am responsible for store marketing, including store launch programmes, and masterminding leaflet drops, TV adverts and support from local radio and press for that.
 
I also oversee our ambient range, making sure we have the right products in the right stores and looking at pricing policy. I take the Co-operative Group’s pricing strategy and add a local direction – for example, we might want to focus on baby products in our stores. I meet with buyers, covering each of the buying areas, once a month. 


Which are the best parts of your job?

I like the variety – no day is the same. I also like the fact that I am supporting individual stores and making a real difference to them. One thing about the OS&G Co-op is that there is a distinct lack of red tape – there does not have to be board or committee approval for every decision that is made. 


What have been the highlights of your time in the job?

In the last few months I have been reviewing leaflet distribution, developing the process we use for launching stores and designing more individual product packaging. 

However, the best part has been the store openings, particularly the launch of our cutting edge Headington outlet in November. 

OS&G Co-op’s portfolio is really growing. We had 85 stores when I joined, and that has now risen to 114.