CONSULTANTS

 

Peter Holloway: Principal Consultant

A highly experienced retail professional, Peter Holloway trained in one of the UK's best respected retail companies, the John Lewis Partnership, where he held management positions in several stores.

 

He held posts as Buyer and Assistant to the General Manager in an independent department store before joining National Trust Enterprises where he was responsible for the management and profitability of the National Trust's shops across Wales before launching Retail Thinking in 2002.

 

Peter compiled the National Retailing Manual used in all the National Trust's shops in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and was actively involved in devising and delivering training to shop managers across the Trust.

 

He has been a Group Director at the renowned British Shops and Stores Association's Oxford Summer School and a member of the Associated Independent Stores Young Executives Committee, where he was involved in inter-store meetings and retail store studies across England and Wales. He has a keen interest in museum retailing overseas and participated in a European exchange with the Flemish Heritage Foundation, producing retail development reports on Horst Castle and the Napoleonic Fort at Ostende.
He has spoken on heritage and museum retailing at many conferences and seminars and has addressed museum seminars in the Baltic States and the Middle East.

 

Although our core business is retail consultancy we work with associate consultants which broadens our field of expertise.

 

Julie Cullen AIH (Associate Institute of Hospitality)

 

Julie Cullen is a highly experienced catering consultant and trainer based in Sussex. Following initial training and “hands on” catering work in Ireland she managed the National Trust’s prestigious restaurant at Cliveden, Buckinghamshire, after this being appointed Regional Catering Manager for the Thames and Solent region of the Trust. In this role she was responsible for the management, business development and profitability of over 20 catering sites in the south of England, including developing major new catering outlets at Hughenden Manor and Osterley Park.

 

Julie has since worked with a variety of clients, mainly in the heritage field, including Rothschild Waddesdon and West Dean Gardens. She has devised and delivered menu development and food presentation workshops, as well as catering manager development programmes for the National Trust, and revised the Trust’s National Catering Operations Manual.

 

She is an associate lecturer and NVQ verifier and assessor at Chichester College, has worked on several development programmes with the West Sussex Tourism Initiative, and is a member of both the Hotel and Catering International Management Association and Chartered Institute of Environmental Health.

Julie also provides one to one training and mentoring to hotel managers and heads of department regarding standards, business development and staffing issues.

 

Julie works as a consultant to an English cookery school in Japan, and has delivered two series of lectures and demonstrations there and written a book on traditional English cookery for the Japanese market