PEOPLE 10 MINUTES WITH: BARRY HALPIN Sales director at UAP Ltd What is your current role?


I have been sales director at UAP Ltd for the past four and a half years, having joined the company just eight years ago as a sales rep. We’re a company that believe in promoting from within.


What does your role entail?


Engaging with customers and understanding their needs is still very important to me but my role as sales director is very broad. In addition to supporting the sales team and setting sales targets, I’m also involved in forecasting, purchasing, product development and marketing. Strategically, it’s important to us to connect customer feedback and market intelligence to decisions being made across the business and a big part of my role is to be that interface between the customer and key departments within UAP.


How did you get started in this industry? I went from working in an engineering role to telesales for one of UAP’s competitors. From there I progressed to external sales, which is how I found my way to UAP.


What roles were you doing before? When I worked in engineering, I had to deliver to tight and mission critical deadlines and that’s a great discipline for meeting customer expectations, which has stayed with me ever since. Obviously, since then I have worked in sales so I understand the value of putting the customer at the centre of what you do. My aim is to build relationships with customers that make me their go-to person if they have a question or need a specific solution, and I’m able to use my experience to support the whole UAP team in taking the same customer-led approach.


Arbor Forest Products has appointed Danny Hickson as product manager – industrial end users, responsible for stock positions and orders on Arbor Forest Products’ shed range. He


joined Arbor as purchasing assistant, moving to the business analysis and administration team, and then Trex northern sales manager.


What would you like to achieve in your role? UAP is growing by 20% year on year – despite the challenges of the pandemic – so my aim is to help the company maintain that trajectory. UAP’s investment and innovative product development are part of that equation, but achieving greater visibility, delivering a great service to customers and offering the right products at the right price are also part of the mix and those elements all fall within my remit.


What has been the highlight of your career? Definitely being promoted to sales director at UAP. I could never have dreamt when I moved into telesales that I would be in a sales director role a decade later. I put myself forward for the role and was trusted to make a success of it – less than five years later we’re expected to achieve a £24 million turnover this year and I’m very proud to be contributing to that success.


What do you see as the main issues for the industry at the moment?


The biggest issue by far at the moment is supply chains. With shortages of both products and raw materials, prices are also volatile, which makes it difficult to forecast and creates constant price uncertainty and difficulty in running projects. With transport issues creating further challenges, these are difficult times for builders’ merchants and for construction operators who may find themselves with vital materials missing from the build at the last minute, causing delays and budget over runs. At UAP, we could see early in the pandemic that supply chains would be affected and increased our stockholding to ensure improved resilience – we have around £9 million in stock in the UK at the moment and


Azpects Ltd has promoted Kevin Ager from national sales manager to sales director, in recognition of his critical role in the growth and continued success of Azpects. He has worked with Azpects for


over 5 years, during which time the company has grown to include a retail division, as well as supplying traditional trade customers.


Paving and Walling supplier Tobermore have strengthened its Merchant Sales Team with the addition of two new team members. Both Jake Scarott and Brian Betts have joined as Merchant Sales Managers covering the South East and Yorkshire/North East respectively. Scarott has worked in the


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have been manufacturing ahead of demand to keep that resilience going, but hardware is only one element of a much bigger picture.


What piece of advice would you give your- self if you could return to the start of your career?


It would be ‘be prepared to walk away’. As a sales rep, my raison d’être was closing the sale, but, with the benefit of experience, I’m much more focused on attracting the right kind of customer and the right kind of business. Closing the deal at any cost is not sustainable and positive customer relationships are based on fair transactions and good service, not going in cheaper than the competition, regardless of product or service quality.


Football, rugby, golf or gardening – what keep you busy at the weekends? Football, every time. I’m a lifelong Huddersfield Town fan and watch them at home and away whenever I can.


If you’re at the bar – what are you drinking? Either a pint of lager or a sour IPA – preferably Magic Rock’s Salty Kiss (keeping it Yorkshire!)


What’s your favourite book? Favourite film? Favourite book: Dan Brown’s ‘Angels and Demons’. Favourite film: The Shawshank Redemption.


If you could be a superhero, what super- power would you choose?


The power to see into the future – it would be a great way to plan our sales strategy and make our forecasting accurate. BMJ


ON THE MOVE


Coram Group UK has announced the appointment of Caroline Borowski into the role of National Account Manager to build and develop relationships within the


national merchant sector and look for new growth areas for Coram showers and Impey wetrooms.


construction industry for over 7 years, 5 of which have been spent working with merchants, suppliers and developers. Betts has over 21 years of experience with paint and coatings company, Sherwin Williams, selling brands such as Ronseal and Corning into DIY multiples, trade merchants and buying groups.


www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net November 2021


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