Merchanting at scale
Experience earned inside the UK’s largest builders’ merchant, where branches, fulfilment, trade customers and commercial targets are operating realities, rather than case study context.
Book an introductory call About The Journey
Operators first.
Consultants second.
The Journey brings together a combination we do not believe any other UK consultancy can match: merchant experience at scale, senior digital leadership and practical transformation delivery.
Experience earned inside the work.
Why The Journey
There is no substitute for experience earned inside merchanting at scale.
The Journey was created to give merchant leadership teams something the conventional consultancy market rarely provides: advice shaped by people who have already carried the commercial responsibility.
Our perspective was shaped inside the UK's largest builders' merchant and across other complex B2B and B2C organisations. We have led customer strategy, ecommerce, digital products, data, fulfilment, operating model change and transformation at scale.
That experience matters. It means we understand the distance between a boardroom ambition and a branch colleague serving a customer on Monday morning, and how technology, proposition and people must move together.
A category of our own
Not another consultancy learning merchanting at your expense.
Plenty of firms can advise on strategy, technology or change. Our difference is the combination and the depth at which we have lived it.
Our beliefThere is no directly comparable UK consultancy with our blend of merchant, digital and delivery experience.
Digital leadership with commercial accountability
More than 25 years leading customer experience, ecommerce, digital products and transformation, with responsibility for the decisions and the results.
Strategy that stays for delivery
We connect ambition at board level to proposition, technology, operations, people and adoption, remaining close enough to help make the change work.
The people behind The Journey
The experience is in the room, not borrowed from the credentials deck.
Two senior operators bringing complementary commercial, customer, technology and delivery perspectives directly to every engagement.
Co founder01
John Godwin
John has spent more than 25 years leading digital, customer experience, ecommerce and transformation across complex B2B and B2C organisations. His experience includes senior digital leadership roles across Travis Perkins, SSE, Vodafone and B&Q, with a focus on turning digital investment into measurable commercial performance.
Co founder02
Kyle Leivers
Kyle brings deep experience across digital commerce, technology delivery, transformation planning and complex programme leadership. He helps clients translate ambition into practical plans, align teams around the work that matters and create momentum through delivery.
Operator experience25+Years leading digital, customer and transformation at scale.
“We know the pressure of making the call, and then making it work.
How we work
Senior thinking.
Practical momentum.
No theatre. No borrowed playbook. Just experienced people working alongside your team on the decisions that matter.
Earn the right to advise
Understand the customer, commercial reality and operating constraints before recommending change.
Make complexity useful
Turn crowded transformation agendas into clear choices, priorities and a route forward.
Stay close to delivery
Keep strategy connected to the teams, technology and measures that make change real.
Leave capability behind
Build confidence and momentum inside the organisation, not dependency on a consultancy.
Close to the customer
Merchanting is a people business, enabled by technology.
The best digital propositions begin with a clear view of the trade customer and the realities of the operation. We spend time where the work happens, on site, in vans, at counters and with the teams responsible for delivery.
Explore our customer intelligenceStart the conversation
Bring us the decision you are wrestling with.
We will bring an independent perspective, relevant experience and a practical view of what should happen next.
Book an introductory call