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Will Huggins Personal Profile
After specializing in marine biology, I graduated from Hull University with a degree in Environmental Biology, in 1997. The logical step from there was into the food industry (?) via a brief spell in a London television company (??).
Joining Geest Foods in 1998, I completed a graduate program in the foodservice division before settling permanently into a marketing role. During this time I build a competitor and customer database - at the time the most comprehensive in the foodservice industry, as well as managing the sales reporting. Increasing developing the desire to get commercial experience (it seemed to be where the action was) I was given some small key accounts to manage.
From there I was offered a role in retail business development, facing the Tesco account. This involved working full time from Tesco head office to manage the category review and segmentation of ready meals.
At the end of this project (2001) I had grown sufficiently attached to my desk in New Tesco House that I accepted a job offer to become the Customer Planning Manager for the Chilled Foods category. My achievements in this role were the category relaunches of Yoghurts and Desserts, Sandwiches/ sushi and Cooked Meats. I also managed the range planning and merchandising for the cooked meat counter and hot deli count.
After 18 months in this role, I was offered promotion to Category Manager, heading up the Wine Warehouse (now Wine Club) business in Tesco.com. My first senior management role, I developed a passion for strategy development, online merchandising and e-commerce. During 2 years in the role, I relaunched the Wine Club, set up a promotional mailing program, launched a call centre ordering operation and a new online merchandising system. Sales grew by over 150% and the business moved into profit.
In 2004, I returned to the chilled foods category as the buyer for fresh pizza, pasta, soups, sauce and bread. Coping with the loss of a factory to fire damage and sourcing new suppliers from Italy were just some of the challenges. Turning the fresh pizza category from 2nd in the market and declining sales to a star performer with record market share was probably my biggest achievement.
By 2006 I was ready for my next challenge and joined the Express team to develop the convenience format. As a key point of contact for the buying teams and marketing department, I managed the range planning for non food, household and health and beauty categories, the trade planning and promotions and the seasonal events and feature space. This role required a high level of influencing skills as I was often pitched against the buyers, attempting to resolve conflicts between the category and format strategies. Increasing sales and margin beyond target were my measures of success.
In 2007 I took a bit of a career gamble and left Tesco to join Bounty UK (the baby pack company, not the chocolate bar!). As General Manager for their online division, I once again had P&L accountability and led a team of over 20 people ranging from web development, product management, advertising operations to editorial. A huge learning curve and extremely enjoyable experience, where I launched Bountys internet TV platform, created a new website for new and expectant dads and helped to secure business from new sectors.
I left at the end of 2008 when my cost saving plan did me out of a job! A few months later after many interviews, a couple of job offers and the advice of many great friends, Strat Nav was born.