Dan Carroll

DAN CARROLL Leeds​ ​ ​-​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ -www.linkedin.com/in/dantcarroll ●​ An experienced and highly motivated senior commercial leader with extensive experience in buying, Far East & global sourcing and strategic thinking ●​ Impressive leadership experience being known for inspiring a culture of business and personal improvement leading to outstanding team morale scores and KPI delivery ●​ A skilled negotiator recognised by colleagues and suppliers as being tough but aware of delivering value-adding collaborative solutions for each party ●​ Acknowledged for cutting-edge and market leading innovation delivering impressive commercial benefits and cost-savings through an in-depth knowledge of sourcing and global supply chains ●​ Known as someone who cares about their team, their life outside of work and who looks to challenge and develop them in a way that suits their individual needs and aspirations. AREAS OF EXPERTISE ●​ Buying ●​ Sourcing ●​ Retail ●​ Strategic thinking ●​ Communication and stakeholder management ●​ Negotiation ●​ Coaching and leading teams EXPERIENCE Play Music Today, Head Office, Speke​ ​ Head of Commercial​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Aug 2023 - June 2025 Aug 2023 - June 2025 Play Music Today was one of the UK’s leading musical instrument retailers, operating as an omnichannel retailer, with an annual turnover of £45m. I headed up the commercial team which comprised purchasing, category management, supply chain and stock and pricing strategy. My team engaged, with my support, with major brands such as Fender, Gibson, Roland & Yamaha to offer customers the best possible range of musical instruments both in physical retail and online. I was responsible for setting budgets with the owner and also the strategic category direction, ensuring that we obtained the best commercial deal and terms for the overall business. I was brought into this role by the owner to grow and develop the commercial team and take them from a group of musicians who happen to work in commercial roles to transition to a team of commercial people who happen to be musicians. In conjunction with this coaching and development, I worked with all business stakeholders to develop more efficient and productive ways of working, drawing from my experience working for large retailers but at all times ensuring the culture of Play Music Today was kept intact. Key Achievements to date o​ Improved stakeholder engagement across the business to ensure that commercial, marketing, e-commerce and retail were aligned and clear on the weekly, monthly and annual priorities o​ Worked with in-house Business Intelligence team to develop forecasting and planning software to bring the purchasing function in line with bigger retailer’s buying cycles and process. This improved product availability across stores and e-commerce and improved commercial terms and margins with suppliers o​ Built strong internal networks, especially with store managers, recognising that their feedback and closeness to customers gave my team and myself great insight in determining how our commercial strategies should adapt. o​ Developed excellent relationships with suppliers, thoroughly understanding their brands and products, as well as their strategies to ensure the best possible alignment with those of our own. This created a more win-win and collaborative approach than previously existed Dunelm, Head Office, Syston​ ​ ​ Senior Sourcing Manager​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Apr 2021 - Aug 2023 Apr 2021 - Aug 2023 Working within Dunelm’s sourcing and quality function, I worked alongside the commercial teams supporting them in numerous ways. I supported the buying teams by ensuring that they had a robust and future facing supplier and sourcing strategy, using my extensive global network and sourcing tools on a daily basis to find them the best and most cost effective routes to deliver great quality and great customer value. I liaised and developed briefs with buying teams to help them develop everyday range and promotional strategies. I was the key point of contact with off-shore suppliers across the world as well as developing strong ties with emerging market trade commissions. I also acted as an internal “consultant” for senior Dunelm leaders to help guide the overall commercial function on how to best adapt and change their strategies to the current market conditions. Key Achievements to date o​ In my first year I established myself as a key colleague for category directors, senior buyers and their teams as an experienced leader to discuss their business with to give a new perspective and different solutions to existing problems, mentoring three colleagues within the buying team. o​ Led a key project to deliver "closer to home" sourcing. This involved discussions with emerging market embassies to identify potential suppliers, leading to key items and categories moving their primary sources to Turkey, delivering significant freight and duty savings. This developed into a sourcing model that was rolled out to Eastern European countries. o​ Developed a more data driven and analytical approach to Dunelm’s sourcing strategies to identify key sourcing "gaps" to unlock more margin for categories. o​ Undertook a full deep dive and thorough analysis of the several key categories and produced a future sourcing strategy to protect availability and margin over the next 5 years whilst recommending new vendor routes to improve Dunelm’s competitive edge Asda Stores, Head Office, Leeds​​ ​ ​ Senior Manager – Commercial Strategy ​ ​ ​ 2000 - 2021​ Sep 2019 - Feb 21 Working within Asda’s central commercial strategy function, led a multi-discipline team to deliver business transformation, innovation and setting the strategic direction for the business. The varied remit of this role, meant focussing on diverse projects from the development of promotional and eventing strategy to launching new in-store concepts. This was a high-profile role demanding considerable senior stakeholder engagement and influencing skills. ●​ Key Achievements o​ Led a business-wide transformative program on the development of better analytical tools to improve objectivity of commercial decisions made on the trading floor. o​ Successfully launched 3rd party food service counters (Panku, Sushi Daily) in vacant store space to deliver 100% profit growth and customer innovation within Asda’s store base o​ Fundamental in delivering a program of promotional reviews for the chief merchandising officer to ensure all commercial VPs were on track to deliver KPIs across the quarter o​ Chaired and advised on multiple cross-functional working groups of senior directors and VPs to facilitate better activation of commercial plans o​ Coached and developed a newly formed team leading to the successful appointment of one colleague to a senior management role and the one of the highest team morale scores in the business (92%) Senior Buying Manager – Core Grocery Dec 2018 – Sep 2019 This was a high profile FMCG category role on Asda’s Food trading floor, leading a team of buyers, to ensure that category plans delivered the P&L and retail sales in excess of £750m. Responsible and accountable for the negotiation and delivery of joint business plans with national and global branded suppliers ensuring at all times that Asda’s customer offer was market leading. A high degree of end-to-end sourcing to ensure that costs were reduced to ensure Asda’s own-label offer was most competitively priced. Key Achievements ●​ Delivered volume share growth ahead of market for all categories within remit ●​ Worked with merchandisers and buyers to create availability driven modulars to improve on-line (grocery) availability ●​ Tendered the own-label Tuna business leading to a £1.6m cost improvement to allow future retail investment to bring parity to discount competitors (Aldi and Lidl) ●​ Executed a program of FMCG supplier negotiations to unlock +£2m of funding to drive better pricing and volumes ●​ Coached the team leading to the successful appointment of one direct report to a senior buying role, bringing in new talent to help develop the teams analytical capabilities Senior Buying Manager – Celebrations, Festive Events and Stationery Jan 2016 – Dec 2018 This was a highly diverse senior buying role, leading a team of 18 buyers and merchandisers to deliver a sales turnover of +£400m and the highest profit delivery within the Home & Leisure business. Categories under the remit of the role were Greeting Cards and Wrap, Christmas, Seasonal Events, Party-ware and Stationery. The role demanded a comprehensive management of branded suppliers as well as extensive Far East sourcing and own label product development. In addition to the day-to-day role, the remit also spanned to cross category strategic projects to benefit the overall Home & Leisure business. Key Achievements ●​ Increased market share and embedded a strategic plan that grew the Greetings Cards category ahead of the market, and the market leader, consistently for 2 years ●​ Negotiated additional resource with key supplier (UK Greetings) to ensure their team was able to support design of other categories under remit of the role ●​ Achieved +£1m cost savings per year on- Festive buy trips to allow further investment into price and value for customers ●​ Successfully mitigated and removed a +12% cost (£1.8m impact) increase from leading brand through objective and fact-based negotiation ●​ Fostered and cultivated global relationships with counterparts in the Walmart business to leverage item, supplier and own label brands to drive cost efficiencies ●​ Used global sourcing knowledge to source latest innovation on Christmas Trees to deliver first to market on-line ranges to combat the threat posed by Amazon Jan 2010-Dec 2015 Senior Buying Manager roles leading Stationery/Consumer Electronics/Celebrations/DIY/Newspapers & Magazines Oct 2000-Dec 2009 Buying Manager Roles leading Books/Stationery/Consumer Electronics/SDA/Homewares EDUCATION-, University of Bradford, 2.1 BA (Hons) European Studies (French and Politics-, L’institut d’Etudes Poilitque, Strasbourg, France Diplome de Relations Diplomatiques Solihull Sixth Form College, Solihull, 3 A Levels Classics (A), French (B), German (C) INTERESTS Outside of work, I am passionate about music and the outdoors. I play several musical instruments as well as being an avid consumer of all things music. I also love to read fiction, for escapism and non-fiction to keep learning. I love to spend time with my wife out in the countryside and nature walking our dog, Sooty.