Acopia presents a Live Panel discussion: Where Retailers Are Losing Margin (and How to Fix It!)

Terry Gardner is a retail industry leader and growth strategist with a passion for helping organisations achieve more with less. Having spent over 15 years with Acopia, he has built strong partnerships across the retail and charity sectors, helping organisations improve efficiency, reduce costs, and unlock sustainable growth.

Known for his relationship-led approach, Terry believes that lasting success is built on trust, collaboration, and a deep understanding of customers' challenges. He is a strong advocate for innovation and transparency, helping businesses rethink how they manage operational costs and drive long-term value.

Drawing on extensive real-world experience, Terry brings practical insight and fresh thinking to discussions on procurement, sustainability, operational transformation, and business growth.

Zara brings extensive retail experience, with a strong understanding of front-line store operations and what drives efficiency in practice.

As Retail Operations Manager at The Body Shop, she focuses on optimising processes, managing costs, and strengthening vendor partnerships to support consistent, effective store performance. Passionate about ethical business, Zara ensures operational decisions align with the brand’s sustainability values while enabling teams to deliver great customer experiences.

Christopher is a senior procurement professional with over 30 years’ experience in delivering cost savings and value creation transformation across global, multi-category procurement functions. 

He has progressed from paper, print and packaging procurement into a broad range of Direct, Indirect and Specialist categories in sectors including Publishing, Retail, FMCG, Financial Services, Technology, Manufacturing, Government and Logistics. 

Over the years, Christopher has held category management, senior leadership, consultancy and interim roles, with a track record of reviewing procurement function and building capability, driving stakeholder engagement and achieving substantial savings in challenging commercial environments.

Core strengths include strategic sourcing, tendering and negotiation, stakeholder management, cost optimisation, thoughtful analytics and team development.

He is currently a Director at Revalute Ltd; an interim/ fractional procurement consultancy based on the UK.

Joe Pennington has built a successful retail career spanning more than three decades, working with leading brands including Charles Tyrwhitt, ProCook, World Duty Free, TopShop and TopMan and Ralph Lauren.

His passion for retail began in Liverpool at the age of ten, when he discovered a love for selling by taking household items to the local street corner and persuading passers-by to buy them—much to his mum’s surprise. By 14, he was working on a fashion market stall, and from that point on, he knew retail was in the blood  

After starting his professional career through a Youth Training Scheme and securing his first full-time role with Burton in Liverpool, Joe moved to London in the early 1990s to take on his first management position. Since then, he has led teams across fashion, homeware and travel retail, building a reputation for developing talent, delivering commercial success and creating exceptional customer experiences.

Joe remains passionate about people, leadership and the power of great customer service, and he enjoys sharing the lessons and experiences that have shaped his retail journey.