MARGUERITE BELL – MANAGING DIRECTOR
Bringing back the joy and success of retailing.
At work | breathing passion, excitement and diligence
At play | breathing family, food and adventure
With more than 30 years' retail experience, Marguerite founded Retail Life to ensure Australian retailers meet and exceed the demands and expectations of contemporary shoppers.
IN THE BEGINNING
After completing management training at Big W, Marguerite moved to Suzanne Grae where she fast-tracked to Area Manager and developed programs to train her teams, increasing their performance and profitability.
In 1996, Marguerite joined Wombat Enterprises as NSW Area Training Manager, before being appointed State then National Retail Manager. During her tenure, Marguerite developed and implemented major operational, customer service and visual merchandising training programs for more than 300 team members, expanding the brand from 12 to over 70 stores.
A PRETTY FULFILLING ROLE
In 2005, Marguerite was appointed a senior executive for Pretty Girl Fashion Group, becoming the Group's Strategic Resource Manager. Her appointment resulted in major achievements and improvements to the company's operational policies and procedures. Marguerite initiated the design, development and facilitation of training programs and fostered team member mentoring and motivation for over 2,500 employees. She also led major IT rollouts, implemented WHS, visual merchandising policies and training, and authored the Group's point of sale manuals.
As Pretty Girl Fashion Group's Steering Team Chairperson, Marguerite worked with executives, key stakeholders and store team members to drive the steering team's initiatives. Together with her team, Marguerite prompted, identified, reviewed and debated key strategic objectives to improve and add value to the business, bringing together HR, Property, Supply Chain, Finance, Operations, Visual Merchandising, Marketing and stores across all brands. Marguerite and her team mapped an implementation course that met the needs of stores to deliver excellence to the customer, increasing profitability and customer loyalty.
BOOKS, BEDS AND OTHER STORIES
In 2009, Marguerite became a sought-after retail consultant, enabling her to work with diverse retailers across industries and project type, including Sheridan Australia, W. Lane, Dymocks, Interflora, Mindil Beach Sunset Market Charter Hall shopping centres and the Sandran Property Group.
TRAINING THE NEXT GEN OF RETAIL STARS
Marguerite facilitates the Retail Property Industry professional development courses nationally for the Property Council of Australia – Property Council Academy.
She also developed resources for Wodonga TAFE's Retail Certificate levels, including the Diploma, redefining its retail strategy along the way. The project aims to explore the challenges and changes to the retail trading environment, identify a possible training solution to support retailers adapt/respond to changes in the retail industry, be more competitive in local and international markets and well as maintaining and growing profitability.
Introducing innovation into the mix, Marguerite wrote the course content from a shop floor perspective, recorded training videos via YouTube and initiated a more hands-on approach to helping students apply learnings in real life.
KEYNOTE SPEAKER, MEDIA CONTRIBUTOR AND INDUSTRY MENTOR
Retail Life's transformational Retail Masterclasses, Retail Power Programs, and Retail Conference Workshops effect change in the areas of people and culture, customer service education and training, point of sale and visual merchandising - the silent salesforce. A dynamic keynote speaker, Marguerite leaves her audiences energised and motivated with practical tips, actionable ideas and the impulse to create change from the minute they leave the room.
Marguerite is passionate about training future generations of successful retail leaders. Her mentoring roles have resulted in her mentees achieving some of the top retail roles nationwide.
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