Job title: Marketing director
Company: Palmer & Harvey
Sales: £4.24bn
HQ: Hove
Number of employees: 3,800Name:

What’s it like to work for your company? It’s really exciting. As P&H is a privately owned company, we don’t have some of the red tape that plcs have. We can come up with an idea on a Monday and start things moving on a Tuesday. Because our employees own the company, it means people really want to work here they’re not just passing through. It’s the number one in its sector, so this breeds its own high level of competitive energy throughout the company our people want to make sure we stay number one!

Does the company offer any unusual benefits? New staff have the opportunity to buy shares after a qualifying level of service. We also offer the usual benefits one would expect from a big employer.

How does the company differ from its rivals? P&H is unique in wholesale because we’re dedicated to helping our customers of all sizes make more money. We’ve got a unique breadth of retail knowledge based on our work with the multiples, major oil companies and independent retailers.

Is there a definable company culture? It’s honest, open, serious, hard-working and results-orientated if we make a promise we deliver on it. Everyone is focused on giving the customer what they want, and everyone pulls together to respond quickly to customer needs. This happens at all levels and across divisions.

What’s the training like and what qualifications can I earn? We provide support to individuals to gain the appropriate professional qualifications and offer a range of skills training programmes.

What’s your proudest achievement of the past 12 months? Relaunching the Mace brand. The team’s worked really hard on getting this offer together. It’s now proven to substantially grow independents’ businesses.

What is currently your most challenging HR issue? The marketing department has grown substantially in the past year. It’s been a challenge to integrate the new starters swiftly into the team and balance energy and experience.

Are you looking for any people right now? We’re looking for more retail-focused individuals, a head of retail development and top-quality sales people for Mace and our other retail product offers.

What tips would you offer jobseekers? Proven results and energy are much more important than conventional qualifications. We want to see people who know what ‘good’ looks like. New team members need to be tenacious, and really able to add value and be used to achieving to set objectives.

Is the company working on anything exciting? Retail guru Mary Portas is involved in the next Pro-Retail show. We’re working hard on growing our Mace symbol fascia numbers as well as a number of other exciting developments in 2011.

Topics