I started in retail in 1996, while in my first year at University, as a shop assistant in the flagship store of a national stationary retailer. By 1999 I was in management and upon leaving the business to go to Unilever on contract in 2001, I was part of senior management. I spent 5 years at Unilever, responsible for the management and roll out of customer facing retail stores, as part of an emerging market project the business was engaged in. I was offered a position at Smollan Holdings, as a business analyst that consulted into Engen Petroleum's forecourt/convenience retail operation. It was while in this role that I was head hunted by The SPAR Group (SPAR KwaZulu-Natal) and joined them in 2007 as a Retail Operations Manager where I consulted to our independent SPAR retailers businesses, proving leadership and retail support to the retail network. By 2009 I was promoted to Senior Retail Operations Manager where I was responsible for leading a team of Retail Operations Managers, Category Specialists within the Fresh departments and retail trainees. In 2014, recognizing that I needed a fresh challenge, I joined a Walmart owned subsidiary knows as Rhino Cash & Carry and traded high volume, deep rural hybrid retail/wholesale store operations for the Group with overall responsibility for all P&L outcomes. The lure of rejoining the SPAR family resulted in me being offered a partnership in three SPAR stores a year later and took on this new challenge with great relish with overall responsibility for the performance of the business. In March 2016 I transitioned back to SPAR KwaZulu-Natal to fill my old position as Senior Retail Operations Manager. In February 2017 I was given the additional responsibility of leading the Corporate Store team which I did until being asked to move to the Marketing Function as Purchasing Manager for Liquor, Tobacco, Personal Care, Baby and General Merchandise, which is the role that I currently occupy.