Martha

• Karl
  Business Development Manager
• Charlotte
  Trading Assistant
• Gareth
  Distribution Operations Manager
• Michael
  Procurement Manager
• Geri
  Business Analyst
• Caroline
  Festive Plush Buyer
• Raj
  Buying Manager
• Caroline
  People Director
• Craig
  Buying Manager
• Feroz
  General Store Manager
• Martha
  Head of General Merchandise Marketing
• Emma
  Head of Food Business Development, Finance Team
• Andrew
  Transport Operations Manager

Martha
Head of General Merchandise Marketing

I joined ASDA on the Retail Graduate Scheme in 1995 after graduating from the University of Liverpool. The great thing that I've found about ASDA is that there are always opportunities to develop and broaden your experience. When I joined I spent my first few years in stores and undertook a wide variety of roles including Night Manager, Grocery Manager and Bakery Manager so I was able to develop my skills in different departments and understand what diverse challenges face all of them.

After getting a great grounding in store, I moved into a role in ASDA House, our home office, in Leeds so that I could experience what goes on 'behind the scenes' here. I worked in corporate marketing, working out the best ways to promote the ASDA brand. Then I moved into a buying role and worked in the Trading teams for 6 years across lots of different areas of both food and home and leisure departments. Both  areas are really different because you work to such different timescales for them - in food areas, products can come from our suppliers to our shelves on the same day but in general merchandise, where many of our products are made outside the UK, you can buy products that won't be hitting the shelves for 12 months! Wherever you work in ASDA, the pace is fierce and especially as a Trader where your main objectives are to negotiate the very best prices without compromising our ethics, so that we can provide the very best value to our customers in such a competitive market.

My role now as Head of General Merchandise Marketing is more of a strategic role, which involves long-term planning. I work with my team to decide what the future vision of our home and leisure products should look like. It's really exciting to be involved in shaping the future of ASDA and to know that I'm helping to lead the business forward.

Outside of work I have a passion for travel and I can't wait to visit both Paris and New York later this year