Tim Hales
Strategic Sourcing, Category Management & Procurement · Norfolk & Cambridge
Profile
Procurement and category management professional with 20+ years' experience building and running sourcing functions in scaling businesses — including co-founding Naked Wines and establishing its UK freight procurement function from zero as sole practitioner through nine years of accelerated growth. Managed £2–2.5M annual spend across global logistics categories, delivering measurable commercial outcomes through competitive tendering, supplier segmentation and contract performance. Completed Level 5 Leadership & Management in the AI Era (Tech Educators, 2026) — applying AI to commercial problem-solving, procurement analysis and business case construction. Subsequently applied that learning by designing and deploying a functional AI-assisted workflow application using structured problem-solving and rapid prototyping techniques.
Key Achievements
- Delivered ~£1M in combined savings through post-acquisition freight benchmarking — rigorous quarterly supplier reviews had maintained Naked Wines' rates 15% below the acquiring group's at half the volume (800 vs ~1,600 annual loads); advantage leveraged to negotiate group-wide rate alignment and an additional group discount
- Reduced unit cost ~40% by establishing direct manufacturer supply, bypassing the established UK importer
- Designed a bespoke Google Sheets tender model replicating formal eSourcing platform functionality
- Built and ran Naked Wines' UK freight procurement function from co-founder stage — sole practitioner for nine years
- Led group-level bottling partner strategic review post-acquisition — developed evaluation framework, conducted supplier site visits and structured interviews, collated scoring analysis and presented recommendations to MD; incumbent retained on the basis of service breadth, winemaking expertise and quality differentiation
Career Summary
Supply Chain & Procurement Consultant · G-Force
Jul 2023 – May 2025
- Established direct manufacturer relationship, bypassing the UK importer — secured MD meeting within weeks and built a direct supply route
- Attended Interclean Amsterdam to identify and evaluate suppliers across the product range; conducted supplier site visit in Italy to finalise direct manufacturer contract
- Disaggregated bundled product costs — reduced main unit cost ~40% through direct manufacturer sourcing, and sourced carbon poles independently from China reducing that component cost ~50%, while enabling product personalisation within the same cost base
- Ran courier and parcel carrier tender end-to-end (specification to contract award)
- Audited supplier contracts across IT, telephony and web services — identified billing discrepancies and recovered retrospective rebates across the supplier base
Bulk Wine Manager / Logistics Manager · Co-Founder · Naked Wines
2011 – Sep 2022
Procurement Category Manager: Freight & Bulk Wine Bottling
- Managed £2–2.5M annual freight spend across global categories — sole practitioner for nine years; rigorous quarterly reviews maintained freight rates 15% more competitive than the acquiring group's at half the volume, subsequently leveraged post-acquisition to deliver group-wide rate alignment and a consolidated group discount
- Designed Google Sheets tender model covering full cost modelling, carrier scoring and volume forecasting — used across deep-sea and European freight categories
- Performance managed strategic bottling partnership with Pieroth (Germany) — 18-month capacity horizon, quality oversight including sign-off of complex wine analysis at key production stages, and quarterly reviews; extended supplier performance framework across the broader winemaker portfolio through scorecards, arrival analysis and direct coaching to improve loading compliance and arrival quality
- Led group-level bottling partner strategic review post-acquisition — developed evaluation framework, conducted supplier site visits and structured interviews, collated scoring analysis and presented recommendations to MD; incumbent retained on the basis of service breadth, winemaking expertise and quality differentiation
- Led freight and bottling workstreams in Brexit Working Group — modelled total landed cost across EUR1 allowances and evolving reciprocal trade agreements; forex scenario analysis directly informed forward currency purchasing strategy, insulating the business against post-Brexit exchange rate exposure
- Designed and led recruitment for freight function roles — built a structured two-part assessment covering numerical aptitude and attention to detail alongside competency-based evaluation of organisational and problem-solving skills; created interview scoring matrix and conducted structured interviews at key stages of the function's development
- Led post-acquisition integration of the acquiring group's bulk wine team — organised site visit to Germany, trained their team on processes and controls, and co-developed a hybrid critical path to align both operations into a new combined workflow
- Maintained a proactive, disclosure-led relationship with the UK Wine Standards Board over 14 years — near-zero adverse findings across 800+ annual movements
Planning & Logistics Manager · Co-Founder · Naked Wines
2008 – 2011
- Established the UK inbound logistics function from launch — ordering, freight booking and goods-in
- Onboarded the initial winemaker portfolio — cost-plus allocations, in-country benchmarking and economies of scale
- Built procurement model in Google Sheets (PO logic, demand planning, cost validation); contributed to subsequent system formalisation
- Managed label compliance from design through to ongoing regulatory management with the UK Wine Standards Board
Planning & Logistics / Sales Operations Manager · Virgin Wines
Jul 2006 – Sep 2008
- Managed logistics and sales operations planning across the Virgin Wines business
Earlier Career
Your Loan Limited · Team Manager 2002 – 2004
Virgin One Account · Business Expert – Launch Team & Complex Account Management 1997 – 2000
Virgin Direct · PEP Admin / Windfall Shares Team Manager 1995 – 1996
Professional Development
Career Break
May 2025 – Present
- Completed Level 5 Leadership & Management in the AI Era qualification; deliberate period of professional development ahead of planned return to full-time employment
Level 5: Leadership & Management in the AI Era · Tech Educators
Jan 2025 – Apr 2026
- Design Thinking, workflow prototyping, AI-enhanced problem-solving, critical analysis, live panel presentation
- Final project: AI-augmented procurement tool for SMEs — governance framework and modelled 40:1 ROI business case