After 20 years living and working in the Asian retail and wholesale business with giants such as Metro, Ahold and Hero, John Glover has returned to his native Australia to set up his own consulting company Global Fresh Consulting Services.
Glover has left cash and carry giant Metro, where he was working most recently on projects in Indonesia and Kazakhstan, and relocated to Melbourne to be closer to his family.
“It was a difficult decision, as working with Metro was a great experience in developing new business across the region,” Glover told Asiafruit. “The same can be said of my time working with Ahold and Metro where I began 20 years ago when the modern retail market was really in its infancy.”
Over the past 20 years, Glover has dealt with an impressive range of countries across Asia, including Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines, Hong Kong, China, Japan, Taiwan, Pakistan and India. He has also taken lead roles in the development of international procurement programmes with both Ahold and Metro.
Glover’s new business Global Fresh Consulting Services is based in Melbourne, but he plans to spend two or three weeks a month working in the Asian region and the Indian subcontinent with retailers and grower-exporter groups.
“I’m not going to be an importer, but I’ll look to represent growers and exporters to be their ‘man on the ground’ to work on programmes with the retailers and assist in better planning of export programmes across the region,” he said.
“With the retailers, I can provide an all-round knowledge of merchandising, procurement, supply chain and marketing programmes for the business that suits the customer needs of the business.”
