John Ibbotson
Managing Director

John Ibbotson BSc co-founded Retail Vision in 1992  after a Retail Management career at senior level with Littlewoods, Makro, ASDAWalmart, ParkNShop, Cooperative Group and several years consulting with Ryder Strategies. He implemented Retail Best Practice in Asda, ParkNShop and the Cooperative Group. He has led major retail Category Management projects with Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury, Safeway (USA) Migros (Turkey) and Ramstore (Russia). He is a specialist in Retail Best Practice, Retail Management, Category Management, and Retail Systems. He has developed retail initiatives with many clients including Retail Strategy, Retail Organisation, and Retail Best Practice in the UK, USA, Europe and the Middle East.

Paul King
Creative Director

A highly creative and motivated design professional with over 25 years’ experience, Paul is widely regarded as a leading figure in the design industry where he specializes in consumer communications across the Corporate and Agency environments. Paul has an exceptional track record of achievement, great communication skills and a proven ability to make things happen. A sample of Paul’s retail client list includes; Tesco, Woolworth, Debenhams, Somerfield, Marks & Spencer, WHSmith, B&Q, Blacks, Kodak, Halifax BhS, Select, Alldays, Bewise, Calloway, Superdrug & ICL amongst many others. Sample Brand clients include Nestle, Phillips, Colgate, Coca-Cola and Universal amongst others. He has worked internationally with retail clients in Australia, Ukraine, Russia, the US and the Middle East and has helped and advised leading design and management consultancies.

Ron Smithson
Senior Consultant

Ron Smithson co-founded Retail Vision with John in 1992. Senior Retail and Distributive Management with DBC, ASDAWalmart and the Big Food Group He focus on Retail Performance Management with special emphasis on Store Organisation, Retail Best Practice and Retail Planning. He has worked extensively in the USA and Europe, leading extensive change projects. Some of his recent assignments include Category management Projects for Carrefour (France) ICA (Sweden) Ahold (Holland) and Retail Best Practice Implementation for Ramstore in Moscow and Migros in Istanbul.

Brian Kolazinski
Senior Consultant

After senior retail management roles in Tesco, ASDA and Booker, Brian pioneered product imaging, photographic planograms and Category Management software development with ASDA and the Galleria Group. Many category management partnerships with Tesco, ASDAWalmart, Sainsbury and UK suppliers and in Europe and the USA as well as major retail reorganisation projects for Booker, Iceland, Safeway and A&P.

Gordon Scholes
Information Technology Partner

Gordon Scholes is a commercially focused Director with extensive knowledge of information technology, supply chain and store operations. Profit focus and strong analytical ability developed and tested in four years as Group IT Director for Somerfield Stores. Accomplished in instigating and driving business change in complex and highly competitive environments as a persuasive and powerful communicator; proven coach and mentor with the ability to motivate staff at all levels and deliver results. He has a wealth of experience in Retail IT Systems Development and Organization.

Stuart Lewin
Retail Design Partner

Stuart is the Founder and Creative Director of BTL Brands. His creative design experience spans decades and continents.  Starting his creative career in London his freelance work has taken him across the globe working for agencies such as Landor, Interbrand , Ziggurat, Ergo, Ocean, and Vivid Brand. Specialising in branding, packaging design, brand experience, shopper activation and retail design, Stuart took his vast experience to Union agency in Barcelona to take up the post of Creative Director. Going on to work for Vivid Brand for three years, Stuart then left to found BTL Brands. Stuarts extensive experience has seen him work with leading retailers such as Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Nestlé, Johnson & Johnson and Coca-Cola.

James McGregor
Store Operations

James McGregor has held senior non-food posts with Asda-Wal-Mart for more than 15 years, including, Head of Retail Operations and Global Trading Operations for George Clothing. Using his specialist non-food knowledge of store planning, efficiency improvement, process re-engineering, best practice design and customer service, he has worked with non-food teams in the UK, Asia, North America and South America to deliver ‘store renewal programmes’ and ‘operating best practice’ for complex multi-brand customer propositions.

Jack Fox
Store Development

Jack has 19 years’ experience in retail as an Advisor, Store Planner and Consultant within the DIY and Food market sectors providing him with a broad knowledge and skills set to effectively plan, develop and provide effective store layouts.

Jack is methodical in his approach to provide space efficient store layouts and designs to maximise sales for the Client whilst making the shopping experience easy and enjoyable for the Customer. He has completed projects for, National Design Projects UK, Store Planning and Development for B&Q, Focus Home Improvement, Tesco, NHS and Trade Depot. Store Fixture, Design Briefs and 3D.