International Private Label Consult (IPLC) has announced the opening of an Irish office, which will be headed up by Malachy O’Connor, a retail and food industry professional with more than 20 years’ worth of experience working with private labels.
The new opening follows the unveiling of IPLC offices in the UK, Italy and Portugal last year. In addition, former Colruyt executive Tony de Bock recently joined the business as a partner.
“We are extremely excited to welcome Malachy to our network and to establish a local presence for IPLC on the island of Ireland,” Koen de Jong, managing partner, IPLC, said of O'Connor's appointment.
“We have been working on a few projects in this market over the years, but we believe that having Malachy on board will allow us to substantially improve the support we offer to our clients at this crucial time for the private-label trade,” de Jong added.
Career To Date
O’Connor has held senior positions at a number of retailers. After commencing his career with Dunnes Stores, Superquinn and Spar, he was appointed buying director and marketing director at Aldi Ireland in 2006, leading the launch of premium-tier ranges therein.
From 2014 to 2016, he held the role of fresh-foods commercial category director at Tesco Ireland, successfully turning around the business’s decline and repositioning Tesco as the market leader through a volume-led private-label strategy.
Since leaving Tesco, O’Connor has been acting in an advisory role to suppliers on issues such as retail insights, negotiation skills and strategy development.
“I love helping buyers and suppliers do better business together,” O’Connor commented. “As part of the IPLC network, I can offer even better support, specifically tailored for private-label business clients, and – crucially for Irish manufacturers – the IPLC network can provide export strategy solutions, which will become even more important in light of Brexit.”
IPLC will be hosting a private-label seminar in Amsterdam on the day before the PLMA World of Private Label trade show (Monday 28 May), under the banner ‘What it takes to succeed in the private-label market’.
For more information, log on to www.iplc-europe.com.
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
