Topaz has announced the appointment of Derek Nolan and Joanne D’Arcy as Retail Directors with responsibility for Company Owned Company Operated (COCO) business.
Derek Nolan joins Topaz with over 20 years’ experience working at a senior level within the retail and entertainment sectors for Tesco Ireland and most recently Odeon cinemas.
At Tesco Ireland, Nolan held a host of senior positions culminating in his appointment as Head of Trading Support Office and Head of Food Operations for Tesco Ireland where he lead the company on strategic trade and event planning, operational efficiency model, central operations, new stores programme, and evolution of their customer service training.
Most recently, Nolan led Odeon cinemas in Ireland as Country Director, having created a new business function over the past five years since its acquisition of the Storm/UCI cinemas in 2011. Within this period, Nolan also lead the entire Odeon UK/Ireland retail business as Retail Director, driving a new approach which Odeon delivered to its six other European territories.
Derek attended the Manchester Business School where he received a degree in Business Management and also holds a Tesco Executive management certificate in Business Management.
Joanne D’Arcy joins Topaz from Lidl Ireland where she was Head of Sales Organisation. D’Arcy has a vast amount of people management experience in the retail industry across diverse markets internationally, including time spent working in Germany and recently involved in the preparation for the upcoming opening of Lidl USA. D’Arcy progressed from Store Manager with Lidl to a Sales Operations Executive role.
In her 12 years in various leadership roles, D’Arcy has specialise in Multi-Site People Management and Development, Customer Service Strategy, Strategic Planning and Leadership, Efficient Retail Operations and Cost Control. A fluent German speaker, she also holds a Master’s degree in Personal and Management Coaching from UCC and a Bachelor’s degree in Retail and Services Management from DIT.
Commenting on the appointments, Topaz Chief Executive, Niall Anderton, said: “I am absolutely delighted to welcome Derek and Joanne to our team. Both are joining at a very exciting time for our organisation as we embark on the next part of our journey as part of the Circle K family. We are always striving to improve the customer experience in all of our retail outlets, and with Derek and Joanne we have two leaders whose wide-ranging retail experience will be an invaluable asset as we look ahead to exciting new challenges at Topaz.”
The roles will be based in a variety of locations and store types. The main responsibilities of the Directors will be to focus on retail operations in existing sites, as well as new and redeveloped outlets.
© 2017 - Checkout Magazine by Donncha Mac Cóil
