Spotlight on…

Tell us about how you came to be at Phillips 66 Limited, and what you were doing before.

I was born in South Shields and grew up in a town called Jarrow in the North East of England, where I lived until I went to Aston University in Birmingham to study Transport Management. I was always interested in transport and logistics (am aware that sounds a bit strange!) and the A levels I did were all geared to getting on to that course. I had a plan! After university I got on the graduate management programme at the Co-op and went straight into a -25 degrees frozen warehouse packing store orders before progressing to being a traffic manager, responsible for all of the deliveries to the Co-op stores in the North East. I did that for a few years but was made redundant. An opportunity then came up to join Conoco (as it was) back in Jarrow, which felt somewhat serendipitous. Back in those days we had staff based at the regional fuel terminals and I was involved in order taking and reconciliation. After four months I was promoted and moved to Grimsby to work at our IPC terminal attached to the Humber Refinery. It was a bigger, more responsible role and eventually I became the Operations Supervisor for the team based there. Then, following three retail account managers all retiring at the same time, I moved up to Scotland and into a retail sales role, looking after sites in Scotland and Northumberland. It was definitely a big career shift and a steep learning curve – but 17 years on I’m still in the same role and still loving it.

Tell us about the role.

It’s very much a job of two halves – desk based and out on the road visiting customers, which I really enjoy. I’ve seen some of my colleagues talking about the lovely journeys and scenery they enjoy in their areas – but I’ve got the real deal! Mountains, glens, lochs, rivers – the scenery is spectacular and the customer I visited yesterday (in Dunoon) involved getting on a ferry there!  I’m really lucky. I have 21 customers I look after and JET has almost 50 sites in total in Scotland. We’ve had a really good 18 months north of the border, and have brought on 9 new sites to the brand – really good growth for JET and something really positive to build on. I think it has a lot to do with the service we offer, the good relationships we have (which sit at the heart of everything we do) and also the way the JET brand has developed over the last few years. The new image looks fantastic and was rolled out really quickly across the network. There are some really proud JET dealers out there who represent the brand in such a positive way. Word of mouth can be powerful – and with prospective sites we always offer them the opportunity to speak to existing JET dealers. A warts and all conversation is never a bad thing!

What do you most enjoy about your job, and what is the most challenging part?

I love visiting the sites and getting involved with the updates and the redevelopments. I also really value the relationships I’ve built up over the years. When people retire it can be quite emotional. I still get a buzz and thrill out of gaining new sites – and that’s probably the best part of the job. In terms of office work, I do a lot of project work and It’s nice to know that my knowledge and experience is valued by the company and put to good use. I’m given quite a lot of responsibility for some of the developments such as the new Supplier Arranged Fuel Cards that we’re rolling out. It’s been slowly moving forward over the past 3-4 years, dealing with lots of third parties, but we’re getting there. It was something we had to build from the ground up – so a lot of work to get it moving.

On the challenging side – at the moment it’s mainly connected to the news that the Grangemouth Refinery is planning to cease refining and become an import terminal next year. We will of course remain reliable and competitive and it will require some detailed planning from our side. Change in our industry can be challenging but we’re in a good place to help our customers navigate that change and to, ultimately, embrace it.

What are the qualities you need to do your job well?

You need to be a good listener and to be honest and straightforward. I will never promise something I can’t deliver. You also need to have a handle on the numbers and be prepared to get stuck into some analytics – especially on the project side. Attention to detail is a must for this role.