PV EXCLUSIVE
Peter Holdway entertained PV Editor Ian Reynolds-Young at Barry Callebaut’s UK Head Quarters, to talk philosophy, strategy and… chocolate. In a two-part article, we introduce you to Peter’s professional philosophy and outline his plans for expansion. Be prepared for a few surprises…
PART ONE
Philosophy: ‘Busy Doing Nothing’
I’m tempted to think that not since Eric Morley has a man been so consumed by vital statistics. Peter Holdway, MD of Barry Callebaut, reels them off at such a rate that I’m relieved I’m recording the interview.
‘We’re the biggest chocolate company in the world, with a turnover of more than £4bn. We have fifty-four factories in twenty-seven countries. We make one in four of all the pieces of chocolate eaten globally. Our biggest customers are other chocolate companies, such as Nestle, Kraft, (the owners of Cadbury’s), and Unilever. But we’re not a retail brand. We’re the biggest company you’ve never heard of.’
There’s a brief pause for breath. Then: ‘The chocolate in the UK’s best-selling ice-cream?’ he asks. ‘That’s ours. The chocolate in your milk Buttons…’
You get the picture.
Peter took the helm at Barry Callebaut a little over two years ago, but he was far
from a new face in the world of UK vending, having held senior management positions in some of the industry’s most notable blue-chips. Having said that, a glance through his impeccable CV informs you that, although he’s always been employed, he’s accepted only those roles that would give him the autonomy he required to ‘get things done’.
At Autobar, he ran Chequer Foods. At Bunzl, he was a Divisional MD; he wielded similar authority whilst at Rentokil-Initial.
The word ‘maverick’ is aired and Peter does not demur. ‘I think I am seen as a bit of a maverick by some of my colleagues in Barry Callebaut, because I take the view that this division is my company, so there are occasional disagreements’, he said. ‘Having said that, everything I do is in the best interests of the company. My sole reason is to create money for the company and keep people in work. My
last three jobs have all involved coming into companies that weren’t successful. When I came in to head-up Barry Callebaut in the UK, the company wasn’t profitable. I’ve been here two years and this year, we’ll make a healthy profit.’
Peter puts his success down to going back to basics: ‘are we doing it right in terms of pricing, purchasing, people?’ He says, ‘if you can sort that out, you can sort the business out.’
‘I get good people on board and I leave them alone. Get them in, let them do what you pay them for. That’s the only way you can really grow your people.’ Peter Holdway
‘I get good people on board and I leave them alone’, Peter continued. ‘Get them in, let them do what you pay them for. That’s the only way you can really grow your people.’
When he was in his first week running Chequer Foods, Peter was approached by the company’s Training Manager. She told him: ‘I suppose I’m not going to be around for long, because the first thing that happens when times are tight is that training gets cut.’ He told the woman, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll be leaving here before you do.’
‘Training is critical in any business’, Peter says. ‘If that means you grow people and then they leave you because you can’t find a spot for them higher up the ladder, so be it. Everybody wins.’
I must look a little puzzled so Peter provides an example. ‘ When I was at Tchibo I had a promising Area Sales Manager. At a review meeting I asked him what he wanted to do in the next phase of his career. He told me he wanted to be in marketing in a multi national. So I asked him if he spoke a foreign language, and he said ‘no’. Then I asked him what he knew about marketing, and he said ‘not a lot’. So, I gave him three hours a week to study marketing and encouraged him to sign-up at night school to learn German. After two years, he left us and joined Nike.’
‘I know that waving a valued, well-trained and highly motivated employee away with a smile is a radical thought for a lot of managers, but that’s how I see it.’ Peter Holdway
‘Oops’, surely?
‘Not at all’, Peter insists. ‘In those two years he was motivated to work really hard. He became an extremely effective member of a highly successful team. And the thing is, we might have had a post for him, but as it turned out, we didn’t. I know that waving a valued, well-trained and highly motivated employee away with a smile is a radical thought for a lot of managers, but that’s how I see it.’
An acquaintance recently asked Peter what he did at work and his answer raised a laugh. However, he was deadly serious. ‘I told him ‘I don’t do anything’, he said. ‘It’s true’, he tells me. ‘I’m not paid to do anything, I’m paid to facilitate, to manage and to provide direction. If I don’t come in, there’s nothing that doesn’t get done because, as I said, I don’t do anything. The higher you get in a business, the less ‘work’ you do. It gets more strategic, it’s networking, it’s things like this, ‘having a chat’.’
‘If I hadn’t come in today, we wouldn’t have a chat but we’d still be making chocolate drinks, wouldn’t we?’
You can’t argue with that…
Read Part Two Here: Peter discusses the whys and wherefores of moving operations to Chester and lets us in on his plans for growing the business at Barry Callebaut.
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