Peashoot salad

Peashoot salad

Sally Main, Sales Manager

Sally Main, Sales Manager

Describe your role at H&J?

As Sales Manager it is my role to manage the process of developing new business contacts and growing our company by winning new contracts, either through the tender process, or on a more informal proposal basis.  I work day to day with the ‘Jones’ of Harbour & Jones and every day is very different, but always filled with laughter.

How long have you been with the company and has your role changed in that time?

In January I will have been with H&J for four years.  When I joined, the company had just seven contracts, so my initial role was a mixture of both operations and sales.  I spent half my week with Nathan learning the sales aspect of the business and the other half of my week out at client sites with Patrick, eventually overseeing five of them.  It gave me a unique opportunity to work closely with “the boys”, and learning contract catering from the coalface put me in great stead to then move full time to sales the following year.  It also means I understand well how to work (and occasionally subtly deal with!) Patrick and Nathan, a skill in itself as they are so very, very different; the expression “chalk and cheese” could have been written for them. 

What’s your current project?

Well she currently weighs about 14lb, needs feeding five times a day, wants constant entertainment, and is my most challenging project to date!  I am on maternity leave, having given birth to Maisy at the beginning of June.  Being a control freak I have found it really hard work, but the long days in sales (and working with Nathan!) have given me plenty of practice at multitasking and remaining calm under extreme pressure.

Do you miss work and when are you coming back?

Yes!  We have such fun at H&J which to me is the most important thing of it all and one of the key reasons why I joined.  I miss the buzz of sales, the excitement of winning a contract, the preparation with the rest of the team for presentations and site visits, even the downside when we (very occasionally) are not successful.  Luckily the team, especially James our telesales manager, has been keeping me up to date regularly on all the goings on including four great gains since I have been off which I was devastated to have missed out on.  And of course I miss working with Nathan and Patrick.  They are fantastic to work for; their motto is very much “what you give is what you get”.  They have been brilliant with me throughout my pregnancy and I can’t wait to get back and get cracking.  I am coming back in January, childcare permitting.

Life before H&J

I am a qualified Environmental Scientist, but to swell my student coffers I also had a job working in a fantastic family-run Italian restaurant which gave me the buzz for working in the hospitality industry.  When I finished university I joined Harrods on the management trainee scheme.  With 23 in-store restaurants and their own production and pastry kitchens, I worked in every catering department from pot-wash, to silver service, cheffing and procurement, giving me a very solid foundation to run my own restaurant.  I ended up running the very popular (and profitable) Pizzeria there.  I still believe I only got the job with H&J because it is Patrick’s favourite place to eat pizza in London!  After five years at Harrods I moved on to Selfridges for the next four years, where I was eventually responsible for all the in-store restaurants.  And then came H&J. 

Why did you join H&J?

On my final interview I was taken out for the day with Patrick and Nathan and introduced to some of our sites.  I was amazed that this was what contract catering was all about as my only previous experience had been of the staff restaurants in Harrods and Selfridges.  What I saw with H&J was so different; happy customers, fantastic food I actually wanted to eat, and staff enjoying what they did. The day finished with a glass of champagne (as we were wishing happy birthday to one of the managers at a site) and from then on I was on the phone to the boys asking when I could start.  Happily they agreed and they have felt like family ever since, which has included the odd disagreement.  I love the business, the people and what we do, to bits.

What about the future?

For now I am just thinking ahead to the next few months, looking for someone to look after Maisy so I can go back to work.  The business has grown so much since I joined so who can say where I will be in the future?  But eventually I want to move to glorious Devon, so perhaps I should work on introducing H&J to the West Country…

If you have any spare time how do you fill it?

I can’t imagine what I did with my spare time before I had Maisy, as now even half an hour to myself is a luxury.  However I spend most of my spare time with my beloved family and of course I enjoy cooking.  My favourite chef was Keith Floyd as I loved his approach to food; with a glass in hand crack on, that sometimes it can go wrong, but never mind, lets have another glass!  Not poncy, just yummy food – his ‘jambalaya’ is reminiscent for me of so many great family meals.  I also love reading, particularly anything to do with the Tudor period and if I sit in front of the box it will be to watch sport, Strictly Come Dancing or an episode of Dallas.  Finally travel, my mum has a house in South Devon where we go as often as we can; or we head for Denmark where my sister and dad both live, and sample the rather fabulous Danish lager.

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