Speakers Profile - Neville Gale










Travels From:
Perth

Fee Range: B


Neville Gale's 30 year career in supermarket retailing began working for Tom the Cheap Grocer.

After eight years he opened his first Cut Price supermarket at North Beach, with his wife, Christine, after mortgaging his parents' home to raise the finance.

Success brought with it opportunities to buy and sell a number of small stores, leading to his election to the Board of Foodland Associated Limited where he served for 13 years, three as Chairman.

It was during this time the FAL Board engaged the services of David Fawcett as CEO, who encouraged Neville to open the first Advantage supermarket at Rockingham. In partnership with Mr John Simpson the Advantage concept, became an instant success in Perth.

In 1992 Neville was recognized as the Independent Grocer's Alliance, Australian Retailer of the Year and in 1993 became the International Retailer of the Year.

Interest spread among shopping centre owners, keen to have Advantage as a lead tenant and as a result Advantage was selected ahead of both Coles and Woolworths at the large regional shopping centres.

The Advantage chain was eventually sold to Woolworths in July 2000 providing the opportunity for Neville to participate in business presentations as a keynote speaker.