About Us
MLW was started in February 1992 as a specialist Retail and Management Training Consultancy. The Director Mark Wrice has worked in the retail industry since 1975 from a junior sales assistant through to management and into training in 1989. He has authored 2 books on retailing both published by Macmillan Education Australia and now both are now into 3rd edition. First Steps in a Retail Careerand First Steps in Retail Management. These are recommended texts for the Retail Traineeship programs from Certificate I through to IV.
As well as the books Mark developed an audio resource on customer service and has written 3 video scripts. The first video was in conjunction with the Australian Retailers Association for the Customer Service Training Video used for the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax. The second was for the Sustainable Energy Development Authority of NSW (SEDA), this Video Training Package was used for the introduction of the new energy rating system to assist retailers understand the system and how to use it to improve sales. The third was the development of an industry specific customer service video for the Newsagency industry.
Through MLW Mark has been responsible for a number of initiatives and projects for a range of clients since its beginning in 1992. His work for clients has included major projects such as the development of three Enterprise based Retail Certificate Programs. He had an active role in both Shell and Ampol’s Service Station directional change to convenience setup through the provision of merchandising and operations programs designed to firstly change the internal culture and secondly to maximise store profitability through the exposure of the new direction. His work for Shell Australia also included the development and facilitation of their Force Franchise Induction Program and then the development of all the frontline retail training programs for their move to multi-site franchising. Other clients have included St George Bank, Manly Sea Eagles Football Club, Toyota Australia, Franklins Supermarkets, KFC, The Cheesecake Shop and many others.
Mark has developed many short course programs on all key areas of retailing from service and selling through to merchandising, stock control, loss prevention, safety, security and human resources. He has developed and facilitated programs from Certificate Level II frontline personnel through Level IV management and business owner /operator areas over a wide variety of industry sectors and product categories. His work with the Australian Newsagents Federation included the development and facilitation of a 5 day off-job training program combined with a Store Operations Manual and on-job components for new newsagents in all states of Australia. This was developed in close consultation with the major industry suppliers including Fairfax, News Ltd and Australian Consolidated Press to provide management and retail skills to owner operators with the view of lifting standards within the industry and increasing business opportunities through better skilled owners. Further work within the Newsagency industry has included the development of judging criteria for the National Industry Awards covering Retail Newsagent of the Year, Distribution Newsagent of the Year and Employee of the Year and regular articles written for the industry magazine.
He has been an invited speaker at the Australian Retail Congress in Melbourne. speaking on Setting Standards and Measurements for Improved Store Performance. He was also been a speaker for the Australian Newsagents Federation national conferences, NSW WRAPS Conference and recently spoke at the Vietnam Supply Chain Conference on Retailing in Vietnam.
