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“Working with people who are friends, not just colleagues, makes a massive difference,” she continued. “At Kerry I enjoy being at work as well as enjoying doing the actual job. That is really important: you spend a lot of time at work.”


Equally important is the need to be open- minded and adaptable, Sophie said. “You never know when you are going to need to apply yourself in a way you have not had to before. You have to roll with it. But that is exciting too – you could deal with four or five people in a morning, all from different parts of the world, and each day is different.”


Sophie is account manager for a customer


that ships the majority of its goods from China. Naturally, the coronavirus has affected that customer “massively”, she said. “We are used to the rush before Chinese New


Year and the wind-down after it, but the wind- down is lasting longer than usual because of the virus. We have had really good communication from our China office all the way through, though. A lot of staff there are working from home.”


Positively proactive


BIFA Young Freight Forwarder of the Year runner-up Sophie Rye got into logistics because she wanted a new challenge. The industry has certainly delivered on that, and


Sophie has risen to it, too YOUNG FREIGHT


FORWARDER OF THE YEAR AWARD SPONSOR


“Freight forwarding is not like anything else,” observed Sophie Rye. “Even in terms of the language and abbreviations that you need to know, it is different. I think that was the hardest thing for me to grasp when I first started.” However, she is not content to remain ignorant for any length of time. “When I began working with my first customer, a lot of the staff there were in the same situation as me: unfamiliar with all the terminology and processes. That made my job harder. So I created a training document covering the basics that we could all refer to. “I like to know why I am doing something; if you do not understand what you are doing, there is no point doing it,” she summed up.


June 2020


Following the announcement of finalists and winners in January, BIFAlink profiles the successful individuals in the Apprentice of the Year and Young Freight Forwarder categories. For your chance to shine start thinking about your submission for the 2020 BIFA Freight Service Awards (competition opens in summer 2020).


Sophie has been with Kerry Logistics for just


over three years and her positive, constructive attitude has got her noticed by management and customers alike. She considered: “Being positive affects your outlook, your motivation, your learning – and the people around you. If you are having a bad day it spreads a bad vibe through the whole office.


Different requirements “As a team we handle several customers, depending on their needs at any one time,” Sophie said. “The basics are the same across all of them, but we do sometimes adapt for each client. One size does not fit all. “For instance, Kerry’s Virtual Buying Office (VBO) purchase order management system has been rolled out to all our clients and it covers the whole supply chain from the purchase order being raised to delivery. The VBO system is the standard Kerry system, but we can prepare specific reports on top of that depending on what the client needs. “A lot of the training we provide to our clients


relates to the VBO – making sure they are confident using it.”


Sophie is clearly enjoying her current


responsibilities but she is also looking ahead. Up next, she said speaking in February: “I am signing up for the Level 3 Supply Chain Management Diploma at the moment. I will be doing that alongside my normal job – and I have a 14-month-old child, too, so it will be a challenge. But I am sure it will all run smoothly; you just have to get into a routine. “There are also some new things coming up for my account, with direct shipping from China to Germany and then on to the client’s customer there. This is not quite the same as what we have done for them before, and the customer in Germany has different requirements.” No doubt Sophie’s positivity will help her take all this in her stride.


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