Senior retail executive Alex Palin joins the National Pharmacies team

London-born retail executive Alex Palin has been appointed Chief Customer Officer for National Pharmacies and will take up his new role today. 

Mr Palin has worked in commercial leadership roles across Australia and the UK for the past 15 years for private, national and multi-national retailers serving millions of customers each week with combined annual sales revenues exceeding $100 billion. 

Most recently in Adelaide, Mr Palin was managing the multi-channel merchandise strategy and commercial performance of more than 900 OTR (On The Run) and Reddy Express stores as General Manager Merchandise for Viva Energy Australia (owners of the OTR Group and Reddy Express). 

National Pharmacies CEO Mark Smith said Mr Palin would bring extensive merchandise and retail management experience, including as Senior Category Manager with national supermarket giant Coles Group in Melbourne and previously as Buying Manager with British multinational retailer Tesco. 

“Mr Palin joins us at a pivotal time, as expanding pharmacy practice transforms the customer experience to include preventative health and wellbeing services, and diagnosis and treatment of everyday illnesses, supporting longer, healthier lives,” Mr Smith said. 

“His skills and experience will help strengthen our multiple offerings in-store and online and support our continued focus on delivering greater access to trusted, high quality optical, health and wellbeing services for our members and customers,” he said. 

Mr Palin said he was excited to be joining a brand with a uniquely focused business model that has placed the member and customer experience at the heart of its operations for the past 114 years. 

“I am delighted to be part of such an iconic community health brand at a transformative time in pharmacy, and I look forward to helping members and customers access world-class products and best practice services, supported by expertly trained staff and trusted, innovative suppliers from around the globe,” Mr Palin said.