It will be a happy new year for Darren Spencer and Brad Wright who have been promoted to new positions, effective 1 January 2020.

In a statement to suppliers, Narta CEO Michael Jackson confirmed what he described as “a significant change to our organisation structure”.

Current general manager, Spencer, will be promoted to chief operating officer and reporting to him will be Brad Wright, who recently joined the business.

Darren Spencer has been promoted from general manager to chief operating officer

“As you are aware, over the last few years Narta has been focused on expanding and delivering a large range of services for our shareholding members, affiliates and supplier partners,” Jackson said in his statement.

“We have made several commitments to the market to ensure through our combined groups scale we deliver efficiencies beyond buying.

“I stated at our 2018 conference that to just ‘buy’ as a group is not enough. We had to disrupt and break the mould of a ‘Traditional Buying Group’- and we have! We have developed, implemented and executed many services which will only continue to expand and grow.

“Looking back only five years ago, Narta had a category team, received basic stock on hand weekly from our shareholders and produced catalogues.

“Today we have:
– An integrated ordering system with our members providing SOH and run rates by SKU.
– Weekly data is now provided daily, by location including both wholesale and agency, written and delivered sales
– An integrated deal ordering and financials system, delivering improved accuracy, speed to market and an integrated rebate system providing total transparency on all monies, dates claimed, amounts and expected payment dates
– A fully functional procurement division combining our groups spend in over 12 indirect categories and growing
– Launched the successful ‘National Product Review’ website, producing TV, EDM’s and other mediums beyond just catalogues
– Centralised digital content and assets management which will deliver speed to market for our members marketing programmes, whether produced in-house at Narta or in our shareholders own business and consistency of supplier digital assets in the market
– We have expanded our data capabilities into dashboards providing marketing insights, forecasting, ordering and much more
– Through our customer experience programme we have completed successful trials in 2019, resulting in the service expanding into more members shop fronts and now commenced working closely with over 10 brands across multiple categories. With the trials now complete in Australia and underway in New Zealand this will accelerate over the next 12 months.

Brad Wright has been appointed general manager, reporting to Darren Spencer 

“In 2020, we will continue to expand our service capabilities, whilst also introducing new functions such as EDI ordering (these trials have been successfully completed), supplier data dashboards will be made available and many new exciting initiatives.

“Several of these new services will be generated from our A.I integration. Our A.I platform commenced just over 12 months ago. These learnings will allow us after further testing through predictive analytics to begin the rollout of new services in 2020. Services including, improved CPFR, centralised new product launches, end of life management, merchandising and detailed marketing reporting/ROI on our members advertising.

“All these changes and new services have created multiple pillars into our business moving from ‘one pillar’ when we were a traditional buying group to now a retail service group, with five pillars and a sixth being built. These structural changes will allow all our services to be working efficiently together as we further integrate each silo to maximise your delivered value.

“These personnel changes under Darren’s leadership will deliver continued growth of our services, increase speed to market, continued integration of Narta New Zealand and improve communication and value to you.

“Brad as general manager reporting to the COO will have each divisional leader and their respective teams reporting to him. Brad’s focus will be to harness the team to work closely together, ensuring the successful integration of each division within Narta, ensuring maximum value is delivered and total service capabilities are being met.

“Darren, an integral part of the team with over 18 years at Narta will be able to further work on new business initiatives and operational efficiencies. Together with Brad’s years of experience across retail, product marketing, supplier background and with the Narta team, will bring these services to life.

“Please feel free to email or call me if you would like to have further discussion on any of the services we are doing or working on and please ensure to congratulate both Darren and Brad when you see them next.”