Markets 

Commercial Experience Across Markets & Geographies

One of the less obvious threads running through my career is the breadth of markets I have operated across, not just geographically, but in terms of the commercial environments themselves. Big box retail, international retail, new housing development, commercial specification, and construction projects in the Middle East — these are not variations on the same theme. They are fundamentally different commercial worlds, and working effectively across all of them has required a level of adaptability that has become one of the most transferable things I bring to any senior role.

On the retail side, I have worked with major UK big box retailers, including B&Q, as well as retail markets in Germany, Finland, and the US. Each of those markets has its own buying structure, its own commercial expectations and its own logic around pricing and range. What works in a UK big box environment does not automatically translate to a German or Finnish retailer, and assuming it does is a costly mistake. The commercial work across these markets involved tailoring pricing and margin architecture to each territory, adapting the product range and specification to meet local expectations, and investing the time needed to build genuine credibility with buyers who have no particular reason to take a chance on an unfamiliar brand or supplier.

The specification and construction channel operates entirely differently. Whether working on new housing projects in the UK or commercial specification projects in the Middle East, the buying process is longer, the relationships are more layered, and the commercial proposals are more technically involved. Winning specification business requires patience, precision, and the ability to navigate decision-making processes that bear very little resemblance to retail buying. The margin opportunity is often stronger, but so is the investment required to get there.

What working across all of these markets simultaneously taught me is that there is no universal commercial playbook. Each market has to be read on its own terms, its buying motivations, its relationship dynamics, its pricing sensitivities, and its expectations of what a credible supplier looks like. The ability to do that quickly, without a lengthy acclimatisation period, is probably the most practically useful thing this breadth of experience has given me.