Spotlight On…

Not really! I joined ConocoPhillips back in 2000, after working for a parcel distribution company in the Midlands. A role came up based at our Kingsbury Oil Distribution Terminal supervising our hauliers, who were an in-house fleet back then. After speaking to my dad, who’d worked in the industry himself, I decided to go for it. 

I could tell from the get-go that fuel was critical to supporting everyday life, and part of pretty much everything, and that really stayed with me. You also realise early on just how much has to happen behind the scenes to keep customers supplied. Once I’d seen that, I knew it was the industry for me. 

I’ve been lucky to see many sides of the business. Early on I worked in scheduling, and that really was done with pencil, paper and rubber in those days! It sounds ancient now, but that was how it worked. You’d pencil in the trip, times and delivery points to make sure it all equated to shifts. And once you were done, you’d rub it out and start all over again! You were constantly moving things around, solving problems and trying to make everything fit. 

A couple of years later, I transferred to Marketing HQ in Warwick for a three-month secondment. That turned my 12-mile round trip into a 60-mile round trip, and somehow those three months became 13 years! 

Over that time, I moved through a range of roles across Customer Support and Supply Operations and eventually became Supply Operations Manager looking after a team of four. I really enjoyed both the operational and people management aspects of this role. 

Then, when the Warwick office closed in 2017, I had a difficult decision to make – work out of London or take voluntary redundancy. With my family based in the Midlands, I just couldn’t make five days a week in London work. It was bittersweet, because I really value and love working for the company – the trust, the autonomy, the people, the customers, the way customers speak about us. I had no desire to leave. 

Fortunately, an internal job advert came out for a field-based Aviation and LPG Sales Manager role. I applied, was offered the position, and I’ve been in this field-based role since July 2017. I’ve never looked back, and I couldn’t be more grateful. 

Honestly, it comes down to the people, the trust and the opportunities I’ve had here. I absolutely love what I do. It’s perfect for me and, to this day, I still have so much gratitude for the company putting their faith in me that all I want to do every day is a good job. There’s not a day when I’m not grateful and proud of what I do. 

Today, I look after all our UK inland LPG sales business, and at its simplest, my role is about making sure customers feel supported, informed and confident in their supply. 

We’re very proud to be such a key supplier to the UK’s LPG demands, and our customers know they can depend on us. Our set-up, from the joint-venture (JV) Caverns at Immingham, through to the loading racks, is unique through its capacity and the way it’s structured underground – and it’s also the largest LPG caverns in the UK. That gives us real supply reliability and capability. 

And availability is just as important as capability. A customer once told me, “It is not much good being cheap if it is not available.” I have a number of customers who are located much closer to other sources of supply yet still choose to buy their propane from us. That says a lot. 

Over the last nine years, we’ve achieved significant growth in our LPG business. For me, that’s all come from staying close to customers, understanding what they need and doing the basics well. 

Relationships are right at the top, though supply reliability is, of course, critical. But alongside that, customers want somebody who is responsive, dedicated, accurate and who follows through. 

For me, good service means staying on the front foot. It means keeping customers abreast of what’s going on, being honest, being available and making sure they’re not left chasing for answers. A big part of my role is representing our customers within our business as well, so when internal conversations are happening, their interests are in the room. 

That’s one of the reasons some of these relationships have lasted so long. We have customer relationships that go back 40 years plus. One key customer once described us as a multinational, blue-chip organisation that provides a family-business level of service. I thought that was a brilliant way of putting it, and probably one of the nicest things you could say about how we work. 

They’re huge. LPG customers need to know that whatever is happening in the market, they’ve got a dependable supplier behind them. 

One of our real strengths is the collaboration between our Marketing, Commercial and Refining groups within the business. It’s a very well-developed and collaborative working arrangement, and it has to be. We work closely together to make sure we’re prepared, that we understand demand and that we’re set up to meet our commitments. That means everything from me sharing customer demand forecasts with Commercial in London and Refining in Humber, where the majority of our LPG originates, to Refining identifying any additional volume requirements with Commercial for any imports required to cover expected demand. 

We’re also lucky to have access to the largest LPG caverns storage facility in the country, through our LPG caverns JV, which means we have the capacity to help navigate market volatility. 

The storage and supply capability that we have gives customers confidence, but so does the fact that we are talking to each other, planning properly and staying close to the customer. In a market like this, you need both. 

I’m proud that Phillips 66 Limited is a board member of Liquid Gas UK Trade Association. It helps with understanding industry direction, but for me, the real value is the customer insight. 

Being in that room means hearing directly from customers, distributors and others across the industry about industry challenges and what matters to them. That’s incredibly helpful in keeping abreast of industry requirements and developments. 

The UK’s energy transition is right at the top of the agenda. Liquid Gas UK continues to work very closely with the UK Government to represent the industry and help shape the future of LPG and ensure it remains part of the future energy landscape. 

And Phillips 66 is already helping to play a role in that. We’re an established producer of bio-propane at our Humber Refinery, and have been selling it into the UK market for several years. 

For almost exactly the same period as I’ve been in the fuels industry, I also served part-time in the fire service. There were definitely synergies between the two roles, especially when it came to managing people. For the last ten years, I was a Watch Manager, with a crew of up to 16 relying on my leadership in both regular and more challenging and dynamic environments. There’s a lot of pressure and problem-solving. You’ve got to make quick decisions. You’ve got to assess the situation and potential outcome and consider your team’s skill set. Your decisions affect not only the outcome, but also your crew and the public.  

The objective is always to positively change the outcome of someone’s day. I saw a lot – from mundane bin fires to property fires with persons reported and road traffic collisions with persons trapped. Invariably, it’s someone having a bad day, and you’re going to try and change the course of the day and improve the outcome. It was challenging, rewarding, and I’m proud of my own contribution and Atherstone Fire Station’s work. 

I typically covered 80 hours a week. That meant sleeping with a pager under my pillow each night, being clean shaven, not consuming any alcohol and always having an adult present to look after the children if I was called out. Over my 25 years of service, that equates to around 94,000 hours of cover, which still feels quite a strange thing to say out loud! 

And on a lighter, but no less important, note, I’m a lifelong Manchester City fan. I also enjoy all sport, play a little golf and football and love walking my dog, which is when I take the time to reflect.