Andy Carling

I am Head of Procurement for the largest mobile food and beverage event company in the UK ( Freemans Event Partners) with responsibility and accountability for terms and contracts with Coca Cola, Heineken, Budweiser, Peroni (Uk & Italy for the Ryder Cup), Moet, Diageo etc.

We have supported events at Celtic Manor including the recent Cazoo Open and 2010 Ryder Cup.

I am also a keen golfer playing off 13.8 at Filton and have played all 3 courses at Celtic Manor via corporate Heineken days.

I am very commercially aware and currently deal with over £1m of terms and a team of 5 as well as having to communicate to 5x internal divisions (and the board) to support successful event activation.

I have been in then role successfully for over 7 years and prior to that spent a number of years as a Senior Buyer at Somerfield and Kwik Save

As mentioned previously over 7 years as Head of Procurement at Freemans Event Partners managing all relating commercial activities and categories that would be relevant in this role, Beers, Wines and spirits, soft drinks, snacks, food lines as well as all pricing and terms agreements. Supporting contract negotiations , supply and ranging for event venues such as Twickenham, Gloucester RFC, Silverstone and the DP World Tour events such as the Ryder Cup, PGA at Wentworth and British Masters

9 years as a Head of Procurement for a Health, Beauty and Household Distributor managing all commercial activity, terms delivery responsibility and management of over £20m of promotional terms for customers such as Spar, Booker, Unitas etc

7 years as Senior buyer for over 3,000 Somerfield and Kwik Save stores

I have over 30 years of on the job commercial experience as well as an education that included (a long time ago) business studies and accounting to above a GCSE standard which set me off on my journey of being commercially aware