PROFILE

Building upon his core skills as a fully qualified mechanical engineer and plastics technician Graham has spent the last 2 decades in the colour cosmetics industry, where he has gained significant experience of Cosmetics Packaging and Retail Design. Working specifically on large multi-million pound projects for numerous cosmetic brands.

During this time he founded an independent plastic packaging business supplying cosmetic compacts and displays exclusively for The Body Shop including projects directly for Anita Roddick, He also helped design and launch Virgin Vie Cosmetics for Richard Branson and also produced displays for Estee Lauder, Kanebo and Shiseido. By 1996 turnover reached £4.5million and he sold the business to Channel Holdings and joined them as Sales & Marketing Director.

During his first year he secured a £9million contract for the re-launch of the Rimmel brand where he directed the re-design and manufacture of over 8,500 displays for installation in the UK & Europe.

He was then head-hunted to join Coutts Retail as a Technical Director in 1998, where again he secured another major cosmetic project for Asda. This involved developing, manufacturing and installing a new cosmetic display system within all UK stores whilst working closely with most of the major brands, including the market leader L'oreal. This project was pivotal in establishing a new format for colour cosmetics within the grocery sector, and has since been successfully emulated by numerous retailers. In addition to his retail sales and design roles, Graham was also involved with a number of new business acquisitions for the Coutts group in his function as a Group Managing Director.

Between 2003 and 2005 he returned to the cosmetics retail arena and helped launch Boots No7 in the USA working closely with several large US retailers namely CVS and Target.

Following the Boots project Graham joined Vivalis as Marketing Operations Director with a brief to transform their 3,500 cosmetic outlets by completely redesigning the displays in all of the key accounts including Superdrug, Boots, Tesco and Asda as well as a large number of 'independent' outlets.

Tesco also uses cosmetic I.T systems developed directly by Graham to manage its entire Cosmetics retail estate.. and working with L'Oreal, Maybelline, Rimmel, Max Factor and Bourjois.. (as well as Collection 2000 of course) The estate is considered by many to be 'Best in Class' and the systems are being expanded to include other Beauty products such as managing Hair Care and Beauty Salons.

In addition to his role at Vivalis and Tesco, Graham is currently retained by Camelot as a Technical Consultant and provides assistance with all POS related Design, Purchasing, Production and Installation projects. The latest Camelot Roll-out received numerous design and implementation awards including the much coveted 'Display of the Year' for 2010.

On a personal note, Graham's leisure interests also have a commercial edge.. including a modest but successful property portfolio. Oxton Property has several commercial interests as well as the usual residential developments. The latest is a (£)million development project at Oxton Barns on the Wirral.

And finally…. as a self confessed 'petrol head' he is involved directly with the Chester based business 'Northern Ferrari Hire' and has supplied them with their latest addition… a pearl white Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder. The cars are hired for special occasions and marketing promotions. This initiative was designed to facilitate an enjoyment for exotic engineering by providing an income/revenue stream which compensates for the obvious and related 'exotic' costs..!!

Personal ambitions for 2011 include exploring at least two new concepts… called 'Sleep' and 'Holiday'….!!