Retail & Grocery Scale-Up Advisor

Helping ambitious brands win in UK grocery

This is designed for:

Food & drink brands that want to scale into UK grocery
Founder-led or investor-backed businesses at the “we’ve proved the product, now we need to scale” stage
Brands selling (or preparing to sell) into

If you’re struggling with buyers, margins, ranging decisions, or retail strategy, this is for you.

Why brands struggle

Most brands fail in grocery not because the product is poor, but because they don’t understand the buyer mindset, commercial mechanics, and retail reality.

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How I help

I don’t theorise about grocery, I live it, love. Breathe it, Every day!

I spent years inside major UK retailers (including Tesco and Boots), making buying decisions — and I’ve spent the last 10 years advising brands on how to sell better into retail. And getting results!

UK grocery strategy & route-to-market

Whether you are looking to enter the UK market or refresh your current retail listings, I can identify the route to market, create market feasibility reports and design your success strategy

Pricing, margin improvement & buyer negotation

Inflation is a real challenge at the moment and that means uncomfortable discussions with retailers about price increases and margins. I identify cost improvement opportunities, negotiation techniques and

category range review and growth

Everyone dreads a category review. Once you were the challenger and now there are new brands fighting for your space. I review the category, identify the gaps and work with my category insight expert to build your growth story

Market feasibility assessment

Want to enter the UK market or a new category? I work with you and your team to understand the market gaps and how to address them to create the most value for your business. And then we implement them

Retail safaris

Our bespoke Retail safaris walk the aisles, analysiing what’s really happening on shelf, and decoding range, space, pricing, promotions and execution. And then, back at base, we take the "which means?" and turn it into actionable strategy

Case studies

ichiban UK

Retail Turnaround & Scale-Up Advisory
Advised Ichiban through a UK grocery turnaround, relaunching the range, shaping new product development and securing a new retail listing. Delivered a 30% increase in sales and helped move the business from loss to profit, creating a stronger, more sustainable grocery platform.i

By Ruby

Scale-Up Mentoring & NED Support

Supported with range optimisation, cost reduction and expansion into new retail customers. Helped strengthen the commercial foundations of the business and support its growth trajectory ahead of the company’s successful acquisition by Charlie Bigham’s.

Patties

UK Market Feasibility Advisory

Advised Patties Foods (Australia) on UK market entry feasibility, delivering a category review of the UK pie market, leading a London retail safari and presenting strategic insights to the leadership team. Enabled a well-informed decision not to enter the UK, avoiding costly misalignment and protecting shareholder value.