The importance of being represented and active in the local community

Linking with local businesses through Herts Chamber has been just the tonic for Britvic Managing Director Paul Graham.

He talks to Sarah Dale about the current challenges facing businesses, plans for growth and the importance of looking after employees’ wellbeing.

Britvic’s Managing Director Paul Graham, a Patron of Herts Chamber, joined the Chamber a couple of years ago because he wanted the business, which is one of the largest employers in the region, to be represented and active in the local community.

The GB side of the business has around 3,000 employees with 400 based at its Hemel Hempstead site.

“We are a national and international business, but Hemel Hempstead is our base,” said Paul Graham, who joined Britvic in 2012 and was promoted to Managing Director the following year.

“It is very important to us to be part of the local business community and being a Chamber Patron has been helpful for us to have that outside support for the business. On a local level, we find out about events that are happening or any issues which can impact the business and our employees.”

Being in touch with smaller businesses that Paul or his team would not otherwise be aware of has also been beneficial. He would advise any new Chamber members to take advantage of all the support the Chamber provides including local events.

“Members should also make sure their whole team knows that they are members so that awareness is across the business,” he said.

“It is lack of knowledge and awareness not intent that gets in the way.”

The last three years have been a challenge across the whole business community from a global pandemic to a cost-of-living crisis.

“We are an everyday mainstream consumerbased business so anything that affects our consumers affects our business,” said Paul. The pandemic changed consumers’ habits including what, where and when they were consuming soft drinks. Like all businesses, Britvic has had to manage its costs through the cost-of-living crisis, but Paul adds that their products are still “very affordable”.

“Whenever I go to the supermarket, I look at the prices of other drinks products, and we still provide very good value,” he said.

Britvic makes 95% of its volumes in its GB-based factories and the firm has faced several challenges in the last couple of years, through a combination of the pandemic, health issues, labour availability and logistical challenges in the supply chain. The good news is that these challenges are easing and becoming more manageable.

In the last 18 months, the firm’s senior leadership team has had a discussion with employees around ways of working such as hybrid working. They had to close the office during the first lockdown – luckily, they had installed Teams across the business prior to the lockdown – but they remained open throughout the rest of the pandemic as people wanted to be able to work away from home.

“Working from home has many benefits and Teams meetings work really well to save time spent on travel and meeting times, but for collaborative working, you can’t beat all being in the same room working together,” said Paul.

“We have introduced a collaborative space with sofas, tables and chairs to encourage people back into the office. We also have local business, Sweetness Catering, providing barista coffee and hot food and sandwiches.

“When we looked at people’s resilience and wellbeing, some people were feeling lonely working from home and missing out on that soft tissue support from colleagues. It’s important to get the teams together face-to-face from an energy and wellbeing perspective.”

Britvic is “very ambitious to grow”. Currently, it has a 13% Retail Value share of the soft drinks market and it plans to grow that market share through a combination of investing and focusing on its core brands, Pepsi, Robinsons and Tango, the latter having a strong market presence after the introduction of new flavours. They have also partnered with The Prince’s Trust – Tango announced a three-year partnership with the charity last year – to connect with the younger generation. The company is also growing its sustainability plans, for example, its Aqua Libra brand has no plastic associated with the product. They are also expanding their portfolio having bought Plenish Drinks over two years ago, which produces dairy alternatives and health juices.

“Wellness is a real growth area and it increases our portfolio of products,” added Paul.

As part of its growth strategy, Britvic is always looking for new talent to recruit.

“One of the areas we are interested in developing is our early careers offer with more apprenticeships and more people on our graduate entry programme,” he said.

“We want to ensure we are more diverse and inclusive and have more women in leadership too, so this is a key focus for us going forward.”