Tudor House Advisory

Two kinds of work, both hands-on.

Advisory on growth and strategy

For boards, founders and leadership teams: a standing adviser or a defined piece of work on where the business could go next and how it could get there.

Strategy and growth plans that a board can approve and an operation can deliver
Market entry, new services and partnerships
Non-executive and advisory roles
Preparing for investment, ownership change or a transaction

Cost and propositions

Specific projects with a number attached: taking cost out, getting the most from a supplier tender, or redesigning what customers are offered and what they pay.

Optimising carrier, logistics and supplier tenders, from baseline to signed contract
Cost-to-serve, pricing and surcharge structures
Simplifying service portfolios and customer propositions
Commercial due diligence on distribution and fulfilment

Engagements are usually a fixed fee, a monthly retainer, or a share of the savings delivered. I know distribution, retail, e-commerce and health best, and have worked alongside government and regulators throughout my career.

Thirty-two years in one of the UK's largest businesses, through public ownership, flotation and acquisition.

I joined Royal Mail Group in 1993 and worked through customer service, operations and marketing at Parcelforce Worldwide before moving to the group headquarters team in 2010. Over the following fifteen years I led the customer function, the Royal Mail parcels business and, from 2020, Royal Mail's UK commercial businesses, for a period including Parcelforce Worldwide and Royal Mail International as well.

That included the parcels strategy that formed part of the flotation in 2013 and its delivery afterwards; the redesign of thousands of parcel variants into three broad ones; the programme that put a barcode on every parcel and a handheld device in every postman's hand; and, through the pandemic, building a healthcare logistics business that added hundreds of millions of pounds of revenue in two years.

Along the way I helped buy and then ran several specialist businesses for the group, sat on investment and advisory boards, and worked closely with government, regulators, investors and the largest retailers in the country.

£8bn+of revenue across the commercial businesses I was responsible for

8,000people in the teams I led, across central commercial teams, sales, service and specialist businesses

50mannual collections in the home collection service I scaled from launch

2020 – 2025

Chief Commercial Officer, Royal MailRoyal Mail Parcels and Royal Mail Letters throughout, with Parcelforce Worldwide, Royal Mail International and a growing number of specialist businesses added for part of the period.

2018 – 2020

Chief Customer Officer, Royal MailThe parcels business, carrying over half of all parcels in the UK.

2012 – 2018

Managing Director, Royal Mail ParcelsDelivering the parcels strategy set out at the flotation, including the growth, service and technology programmes behind it.

2010 – 2012

Managing Director, Fulfilment and Parcel Strategy; Director of Customer ExperienceThe group's parcels strategy, developed as part of the flotation and presented to the market, government and investors, and a 2,000-person customer service operation.

1993 – 2010

Parcelforce Worldwide, Royal Mail GroupSales and Marketing Director, following management roles in customer service, operations and marketing.

Leading and advising specialist businesses while at Royal Mail

Alongside the executive roles I led the acquisition of a number of specialist businesses into the group and then led and advised them while they settled in, before handing them to members of my team to give them experience of running a P&L: Intersoft (international shipping systems for larger retailers), Storefeeder (marketplace integration, stock control and shipping systems), Royal Mail Courier Services and eCourier (same-day networks, nationwide and in London) and Royal Mail Relay (specialist services across several sectors). I represented the group on the board of Mallzee, an investment in marketplace technology, and sat on the advisory board of the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council.

MSc Marketing; Chartered Marketer; Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing, Chartered Institute of Marketing; BA (Hons) Industrial Design.

Why Tudor House.

The company is named after the house I live in and have spent years restoring, in a village in south Warwickshire. It is a reasonable description of how I like to work: on things that last, done properly, with the detail attended to.

Outside work I plant trees (a thousand so far at home, and the first Royal Mail woodland for the Queen's Green Canopy), and spend more time than I should at the RSC in Stratford.

Independent advice on growth, cost and propositions, from someone who has run the numbers at scale.