07/01/2026
STAFF STORIES
Lachlan Stewart
As a casual trolley boy/ checkout chick, (in his words) Lachlan kicked off his Coles career in September 1995.
While working across the school holidays, Store Manager, Ray Fein, called him into his office on a Saturday and offered a Management Trainee position, which Lachlan accepted the following Monday, and signed out of school on the 1st day back term 4.
He joined the grocery team of trainees, including David Simon, Brett Vidler, Scott Hobday and Jenny Tutt(Pye), under the leadership of Wayne Hammet.
During rotations across the departments he worked with Timm Mills in FV, Steve Holland in DL and Jo O’dell in service.
During the time as a trainee, he was the Saturday night duty manager when David Simon transferred.
The first department manager appointment was Service Manager in the Inverell store, before progressing into Dry Goods.
During that time he was part of the steering committee to land the 25 year reunion. “Who’d have thought we would hit the 50?”, he said!
2003 Lachlan transferred to #4473 Moree as Grocery Manager and then moved into the Fresh Foods Manager role.
2005 was appointed as Store Manager at #4370 BiLo in Armidale.
He was given an opportunity to land Easy Ordering for the region as a Business Readiness Manager. “Not sure if it was my influence, but the project was scrapped soon after Wesfarmers acquired the Coles Group”.
This gave him the opportunity to lead the #4372 BiLo South Tamworth Team, which he went on to do for about 18 months.
A new store opening opportunity presented in Grafton, opening the #4456 Grafton Shopping World store. While in this store he did a 12 month secondment for the state, sourcing local products for stores.
After 2 years in Grafton, he then saw another opportunity to move back to #4473 Moree as the Store Manager, which he jumped at. “This stint was for 3 years in ‘the big M’”, he said, when once again he was offered another move, this time back to the new store at South Tamworth, now a Coles store. “During the time in #5796, we launched the Online Delivery, one of the 1st in regional NSW”, Lachlan mentioned.
Next move was to #87610 Tamworth Square for the next 3 years.
“20 plus years in stores was just about enough for me, and I took up a role as a Bench Store Manager, supporting across the region for many different projects.” Lachlan went on to say.
He was then in a position to take on the Coles Services Area Manager role still based in Tamworth, and covering Moree – Tenterfield and down to Scone. This was short lived as the line manager pursued other roles and he was seconded to the Regional Operations Manager, looking after 9 Area Managers and about 120 stores. Post the onboarding of his new line manager, he applied for the role of Liquor Area Manager in 2020, of which he was successful in, and has been in this role for the last 5 years.
Lachlan has just celebrated 30 years with Coles, which he says he is truly proud of.
Lachlan has certainly put in a mammoth effort and moved around in his career but went on to say, “There has been so many friendships formed over the past 4 decades, but a couple of key names ring the loudest,
Del Browning – everyone’s other Mum
Brett Vidler – Taught 16 year old me what and what not to do
Bronwyn Hall – the fixer and go to for any leader that has been fortunate enough to work at #4444
Very much looking forward to reconnecting with so many ‘old’ faces in February ’26”., he said.
