IN CONVERSATION
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DAVID HOLMES CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, WARRENPOINT PORT
While Warrenpoint Harbour Authority is celebrating 50 years since its inception, the port itself is also looking forward to marking its 250th anniversary later this decade. We recently caught up with its Chief Executive Officer David Holmes to find out how the port has been performing in these challenging times. David Holmes joined the Harbour in 2019 from Irwin’s Bakery where he had been Operations Director for the past six years. Previous roles included senior positions at Kerry Group, Unigate, and Premier Foods. His background in dealing with complex operations and supply chains has already proven to be a big asset to the Harbour as he and his team continue to work on increasing tonnage and turnover at what is Northern Ireland’s second largest port in terms of volume.
First, we asked him that while he doesn’t have a marine / shipping background, what does he think he has brought to the role since taking up the appointment? When joining any new organisation, even one where you have experience in the sector, there is a period of listening and learning. It is essential to get to know the people, the processes and to get an understanding of the culture. The fact that I joined only six months before the pandemic started and only months before Brexit has levelled the playing field regarding experience. The usual induction period was dominated by issues outside of our control. I am lucky that there is a strong team in place who were able to support my onboarding process. In terms of what I bring to the role, I believe that communication is key, both internally and externally. I have been working on increasing our stakeholder engagement and improving our internal and external communication. Health and Safety is also a priority for me. I have been working with the team on a programme of continuous improvement. As I have worked both operationally and strategically throughout my career, I understand the challenges and opportunities open to the Port. I believe I bring a wealth of cross sector experience as well as the willingness to continuously learn and to be agile to adapt to changing circumstances.
The past year has been a difficult one, not least because of the pandemic, so what have been the challenges and how have you overcome them? The challenges of the past year have certainly not been confined to a Port environment. We thought at the start of 2020 that Brexit would be our priority. We were spending a significant proportion of time on preparations for this and the impact it may have on our customers. As the pandemic took hold, we had to switch our focus to protect our people and keep the Port Covid free, without impacting on operational activity.
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As we started to get an understanding what a Covid world looked like, we could not take our eye off Brexit. Dealing with these two major disruptive forces along with day-to-day operations certainly has been a challenge. By mid-year however, we had started to turn things around and I must commend our team who have worked exceptionally hard over the past 12 months. We ended up having a strong year despite the challenges, which helps to demonstrate the resilience and agility of the business.
Despite Brexit, and the subsequent lockdowns, the port posted some reasonable figures for 2020, can you elaborate? To what do you attribute those figures? We have been in a period of transition and change literally since I joined the Port. We have a small senior management team, so we’ve had to work efficiently and effectively. We spent the best part of 2020 preparing for what impact Brexit would have on our services, while dealing with a global pandemic. The robust figures can be attributed to several factors including a strong relationship with
existing customers; a training investment in the Port team; a fundamental commitment to staying safely open for business with the wholehearted engagement of our teams; a focused effort to respond in kind to presented consignment opportunities; and to stay one step ahead of the logistical uncertainty that Brexit offered; whilst pursuing strategic improvements within the Port.
What new systems and processes have you had to introduce in the wake of Brexit? A significant amount of the Brexit preparation work that we carried out was to enable us to support our customers. We also had to prepare for DAERA (Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs) to use our site to carry out checks on some products coming from GB to NI. These are currently being carried out at temporary facilities as we await further information on permanent arrangements. As an organisation the Port did not have many new systems to implement. It is, however, particularly important that we were able to support our customers with the transition. We had to understand the additional complexities so that we could make sure Warrenpoint Port offered the smoothest process possible.
