Adrian Nicholls (left) is business development manager for Blakemore Wholesale's Wolverhampton depot. He works with depot manager Simon Richards Adrian on Simon I first joined Blakemore Wholesale 25 years ago and have worked for the company for 20 years on and off. I first met Simon two years ago when he joined as manager. He came from a multiple retailing background having worked for Aldi and to begin with he wasn't completely familiar with wholesaling. I have worked in multiples myself and you don't really get to know the customer that well beyond hello and goodbye, so it took Simon time to get used to going onto the shop floor and really getting to know the customers. By knowing them so well myself, I was able to help him with this and now he has a great relationship with the retailers who come into the depot. Wholesalers are often slightly old fashioned and still focus on shifting brown boxes around. Simon brought some great ideas with him when he joined, particularly on highlighting promotions and the deals we can do. We have a laugh at the depot and, although we haven't managed it yet, I am sure we will end up drinking too much and falling over together soon. Simon on Adrian Having someone like Adrian here when I joined was fantastic. He has been here since the beginning of time and really helped me get to grips with the sector. Adrian's role is to bring new retailers into the depot and drive our Hot House store development programme, so he is on the road a lot talking to customers and getting them to visit the depot. We work together closely though when it comes to shifting bulk purchases to our bigger customers and pushing through the various deals. We speak about three or four times a day, whether he is in the depot or not. He has a great rapport with the retailers who come into the depot and I would say he is the best rep in the group, but then I am biased. He knows everyone that comes in. When we have a special offer that we want to sell through, Adrian will come onto the shop floor and, nine out ten times, we will shift the lot in no time. He is extremely enthusiastic and the banter is always good. I am hoping to have a good night out with the whole management team soon.

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