A rising star at Wales’s fastest growing food supplier has been appointed as the company’s new head of distribution.
Laura Holland, who joined Harlech Foodservice five years ago on the tele-sales desk, takes charge of organising deliveries to customers across Wales, the North West of England and the West Midlands.
As Distribution Manager she will be responsible for the routes taken and the cargoes carried by over 80 drivers behind the wheels of 65 delivery lorries and vans transporting 5,000 lines of products from the company’s five depots to thousands of customers.
Laura, from Mynytho, near Abersoch, is originally from Stockport and worked in men’s fashion and in marketing after achieving a degree in Surface Pattern at Huddersfield University.
She joined Harlech in 2019, just before the pandemic hit, in tele-sales and has worked in a number of roles, most recently as Customer Experience Manager and she said: “The only thing I haven’t done is drive a forklift truck but it means I do know how the business runs.”
Her new job will be to make it run as smoothly as possible as she added: “It’s a brand new role supporting the drivers and their depot managers so it’s about customer service which is where I will transfer my skills from my role as customer experience manager.
The comment on efficiency is over 2 paragraphs. Could you phrase so that about balancing efficiency with customer service and combine?
The benefits are reducing our carbon footprint and enabling us to offer lower prices to customers – so being efficient is beneficial for our customers
“I’ll be looking at the efficiency of the business and how we balance it with customer service because if we’re sending a big articulated lorry down to Carmarthen loaded up with goods then we don’t want it coming back empty.
“There are so many suppliers who deliver to us and if our routers can organise the return journey to pick up those deliveries from them on the way back it makes it more efficient for us and for them while reducing our carbon footprint.
“It’s about our customers and our people and we have deliveries all across Wales, the North West of England and the Midlands and the role is bringing all those people together. I really enjoy that.
“There are so many people who have progressed through the business and now when I interview people for a job I tell them there are so many opportunities and I am proof of that.
“It’s a great place to work. The business is growing and we’re retaining the people who have helped us and they’re being rewarded.”
“As part of my induction to the role I spent a day out in an HGV with a driver because I need to know what their work experience is and to see if we can improve it so we can make role better for them and be more efficient.”
When she’s not in work Laura enjoys living in one of the most scenic areas of the country and walking her rescue dog – she has an ambition to walk the Wales Coastal Path – and her ideal day is a walk finishing in a pub with a pint watching the rugby.
She said: “Living here is wonderful and most of my family are now here including my brother who runs a pub in Abersoch and is one of our customers.
“It’s a lovely part of he world and it’s good that I can progress my career here at Harlech and my experience in different parts of the business is important in helping our customers.”
Harlech Foodservice Managing Director David Cattrall said: “At Harlech we’re passionate about being an equal opportunity employer so the best people progress quickly and increasingly young women like Laura are taking on different roles across the company at all levels and doing them very well.
“It is important too that people who join Harlech Foodservice know that there is a career pathway within the company that can enable them to progress on merit and that’s important in a largely rural area like this.”
