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Peter Selinger

Career & Background

Snapshot

Problem solver > B.Sc.Econ (Hons) London School of Economics

> Commercial and Operations Manager > Business strategy to

operational delivery

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With a turnover of $27 million, ACMI is a government funded arts centre based in Federation Square. It delivers programs across film, exhibitions, talks

and lectures, and festivals. With 1.2 million visitors a year ACMI is a leader in its field.

Key Achievements

• Commercial sales of $4.8 million with high customer satisfaction scores

• Significantly improved the professional relationship with 16 major festivals a year bringing 120,000 people a year to ACMI. Increased the range of

services and products festivals purchased from ACMI. Received recognition from festival mangers for dramatically improving relationship with ACMI

• Increased revenues for the 2014 major exhibition by $500,000 by devising a new ticket price framework, 17% of total ticket sales

• Turned retail operations around from loss to profit making

• Project managed a $430,000 major shop design and build

• Redesigned and enhanced the membership program recruiting 2,500 paid members and launched a new product delivering 900 members in six

months

• Provided commercial analysis support and modelling on pricing and budgeting

• Improved revenues and customer service with our catering partner to record highs

Peter Selinger 2012-2014

Head of Commercial and Visitor Services

Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Federation Square, Melbourne

Commercial

Retail - Core

Commercial

Hire

Screen

Culture Events

Retail -

Exhibitions

Public

catering

& Cinema

“treats”

Publications

Festivals

delivery and

support

Memberships

Web sales

Photography

(flipbooks)

Visitor

Services

Ticket sales

Visitor

information

Complaints and

enquiry

management

Ushering

OH&S Support

Exhibitions

delivery

Visitor

satisfaction

Presentation

standards

Education

program delivery

support

Public program

delivery support

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Peter Selinger 2009-2012

FMCG Sales: Moving from Field to Key Account Management, Leadership

Team Member, Diageo VIC Sales

Diageo is the world’s largest spirits business with market leading brands such as Smirnoff, Johnnie

Walker, Bundaberg Rum, Guinness, Jose Cuervo and Tanqueray. During this time I enjoyed a sales role

growing from Field to Key Account sales.

Key Achievements

• Built and maintained strong relationships with major clients delivering $11 million a year in sales

regularly outperforming State results

• Worked across a variety of key account partners with a large banner group, two leadings groups in

Tasmania, and strong regional groups

• Delivered strategic analyses of my customers businesses developing targeted sales plans and then

working in partnership with them to ensure successful delivery

• Created new sales development opportunities through my understanding of the market and my analysis

of sales data, developing the sales team with new tools to enhance their performance

• Developed a good understanding of the use of AZTEC and Seibel for gaining insights and researching

opportunities

• Delivered a major research project into the HORECA channel

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Peter Selinger 2007-2009

Senior Manager, Leadership Team Member, Bundaberg Distilling Co.

The Bondstore is the home of an Australian icon, Bundaberg Rum, owned by the world’s leading spirits

business, Diageo. As Bondstore Manager I was responsible for:

• delivering an outstanding visitor experience, growing visitor numbers and satisfaction

• strategy development and delivery, generating strong commercial performance

• team development, training, and motivation

• retail brand marketing, public relations and events

• risk management and safety

• maximising sales and profits

Drove cultural change from an operations to a sales and marketing / customer focus:

• this enabled a transformation from a breakeven service to a dynamic and profitable growth driver

• revenues increased 58% from $4 m to $6.3 m and profits from breakeven to $1.2 m

• I developed a strong team operating at high standards delivering an outstanding experience

• I built relationships into our corporate office in Sydney across all functions

Represented the business to the community:

• forging relationships with the local council, MP’s, media and the community

• in the process I built up a customer database of Ambassadors 9,000 strong in 18 months

Implemented a market segmentation approach to sales:

• identifying new clients and markets we built up 5,000 new visitors, and growing

• grew tickets sales +12% in challenging tourism market, holding at 60 k visitors per annum

• increased use of our most profitable tour from 8% to 16% of total visitors

• an engaged and energetic team created and maintained high satisfaction scores

Increased average customer spend from $65 to $100 a head:

• grew sales of an exclusive product , Bundaberg Rum Royal Liqueur, from $2 m to $ 3.5 m

• developed gifts and souvenirs

• introduced new products, e.g., personalised bottles, items hand crafted from vat timber

• Ambassador database let us start a successful electronic mail order business

• I focused the team on customer service and attention to detail.

Engaged the community and media with product launch events:

• building strong loyalty and participation

• attracted significant numbers, created very strong retail sales, and significant media attention

• e.g., racing our V8 Supercar against a jet aircraft generated national TV coverage at the Air Show

Warm welcome at our tour desk

Creating events of scale that

engaged the community

Introducing the Mayor of

Bundaberg at a product launch

Heritage Range – new concept

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Peter Selinger 2002 - 2007

Owner / General Manager, Niche Design, Noosa Heads, QLD

On moving to Australia in 2002 I took on the challenge of small business ownership. Initially acquiring

a boutique manufacturing business for window furnishings I transformed it into a focused sales agency

for leading brands selling and project managing installation.

Key Achievements

• Grew sales in a strongly competitive market to specialist designers, decorators and retailers across

both QLD and NSW

• Learnt firsthand lean manufacturing techniques

• Successfully sold the manufacturing business and translated experience to specialist sales and

project management for leading brands across three leading brands

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Peter Selinger 1996 - 2002

MD / General Manager, Bateaux London, London, UK

Bateaux London is the largest tourism business on the river Thames in London, UK. It is a wholly

owned subsidiary of a world leading catering business, Sodexho; a part of its leisure division with

operations in London, Paris, and New York.

As the General Manager I was in charge of this tourism business unit:

• responsible for a team of 120

• developed a growth strategy on a rolling five year plan within a corporately agreed framework

• built a dynamic sales and marketing team

• lead a strong focus on operational safety and crisis management

• trained and developed team members to take on senior roles elsewhere in the organisation

Bateaux London is a multi-site operation spread across London:

• fleet of 9 vessels with 5 piers and ticket sales points

• significant commercial returns through catering and functions, day time tourism and sightseeing,

• introduced on-board photography and pier based retailing

I implemented a strong approach to sales growth through market segmentation, developing

relationships with and selling in to the travel trade, corporate and social groups markets.

• grew sales 60% from $12 m to $20 m and profit from 0.8% to 8.8%

• doubled passenger numbers from 375,000 to 750,000 a year

• introduced new services and products that contributed 20% of total sales within two years

With services running in front of the Houses of Parliament, considerable time was spent lobbying and

influencing stakeholders; London Transport, MP’s and regulatory authorities.

Dinner cruises

Daytime Sightseeing

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Peter Selinger The Tussauds Group, UK 1987 - 1996

From Merchandise and Visitor Services Manager, to New Attractions Business Development

Manager, to Commercial Manager

These three roles were with the Tussauds Group, the second largest visitor experience business worldwide after Disney

My first role was as Retail and Visitor Services Manager at Chessington World of Adventures, the third largest theme park in

the UK with 1.2 m visitors p.a.

Chessington was unique in its combination of an existing Zoo with a theme park:

• 8 themed shops and 3 photographic operations

• working with external partners I introduced electronic ride photography to the UK

• grew sales 79% to $9 m

• lead a team of 6 permanents and 120 casuals

• developed my deputy to succeed me when I was promoted to my next role

I used financial reporting, analysis, and business planning skills to successfully drive growth and profitability

My next role was to Head Office, initially as the PA to the Executive Director Development, and then as Business

Development Manager New Attractions:

• focused on mergers, acquisition, and new build opportunities working on leisure projects in Europe and Japan

• I played a significant role in due diligence exercises for Parc Asterix in France and Port Aventura in Spain

• spent 4 months in Tokyo researching the Japanese leisure market, developing a project for Yokohama

• acted as the company retail consultant

• deputised as the duty general manager for Tussauds Amsterdam

• developed high level financial modelling and strategic planning skills that were used to forecast cash flow and investment

returns for major projects

• engaged with stakeholders at a local level when performing due diligence exercises and presenting development

opportunities to local authorities

• during my time in Tokyo I leveraged my internal relationships to engage others in my project work

This lead me to Alton Towers, the largest theme park in the UK, the third largest in Europe, with over 2.2 million visitors a

year. Here I was the Commercial Manager Retail responsible for:

• 100 operating units spread across a 50 Ha site

• 60 permanent and 900 seasonal staff

• increased sales 20% to $47 m a year

• food & beverage $25 m, merchandise $9.4 m, rides photography $4m, and participation games $8.5 m

• created a product selection and purchasing team that became a new resource for the business as a whole

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Peter Selinger The Tussauds Group, UK 1984 - 1987

Store Management and Buying for Food, Marks & Spencer plc, London

Marks and Spencer is an iconic British retailer with an admired graduate development program. I joined them straight from

university working in a number of London stores and then progressed to Head Office to train as a buyer.

Key Achievements

• Managed a $90 million p.a. catalogue in foods as a buyer

• Developed a reputation as a trouble shooter improving performance at underperforming stores though a combination of

people development, financial and performance analysis, and visual merchandising and stock management

• Key member of the team that opened the UK’s first food only store, a new trial rapidly rolled out across the country