Hedley Barnes

Running the Northern Europe subsids for Spin Master. Countries / regions covered currently UK, Ireland, Benelux, Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and recently Central Eastern Europe (Poland, Hungary, Czech, Romania, Slovakia). P and L responsible.

Running and leading the Spin Master business throughout the central european area. Responsible for the separate P and L's for both the German office and the Benelux office.

Responsible for setting up Spin Master Benelux from “scratch”. Our objective was to set up the business for the long term, and integrate the shared service offices in Slovakia into the European business setup with Benelux leading the process. Tasks and responsibilities • P and L responsible for the region. • Delivering sales, marketing and distribution strategies to drive growth and share from day 1. • Ensure Spin Master Benelux becomes known for core qualities of delivering highly planned commercial business plans that give strong results for its retail and distribution partners.

Responsible for the sales strategy and the revenues generated from all territories in EMEA, Oceania and Latin America. A key member of the Executive management team delivering the business strategy and development focus. Tasks and responsibilities: • Reported to the CEO Upper Deck International • Management of the 8 regions where we had local subsidiaries/infrastructure, and the expansion of our third party distribution business. • Involved in product selection, developing new relationships with suppliers and delivered major contracts with our key suppliers (eg Spinmaster, Tomy Europe, Giochi Preziosi) • Developed new sales planning tools, sales administration and business control processes. • Worked closely with the International Marketing and Category Directors to ensure that the marketing and sales plans were inline, in budget but hit critical sales mass.

Tasks and responsibilities: • Responsible for the development and execution of the regional business strategy in Northern Europe + Oceania. (UK, Oceania, Nordics, Benelux + Eastern Europe). • P and L responsible for the 4 key offices in the region. • Dealt with the key retailers, TV broadcasters, key licensors and suppliers. • Budget responsible, with turnover in the region for the full year at over €25m.

Tasks and responsibilities: • Management of the total UK business, including P and L responsibility and management of the sales, marketing, organised play and administrative functions. • To increase distribution and coverage and build the direct relationship with the major retailers. • Fully budget responsible, the teams worked hard with grass roots marketing initiatives that delivered high visibility at low cost. This involved school programs, instore demonstrations / tournaments, and holiday village tours.

Tasks and responsibilities: • Reported to MD UK. • To deliver sales, margin and distribution targets each year with minimum growth rates over 10% each year. • Set the strategy to maximise the sales from both our traditional and high growth revenue streams. • Managed a £7m retail co-op marketing budget.