ENTREVISTA

the interview Andy Sharpe, President & CEO North American Region, Bühler

As well as holding the positions of President, CEO, and Vice President of Business Development of Bühler Aeroglide, Andy Sharpe is also the current President and CEO of the North American Region at Bühler. As head of the Bühler North American Sales and Service organisation, Mr Sharpe has developed a culture of trust, respect and honesty – transforming the organisation into one where entrepreneurship, accountability and innovation flourishes. Prior to holding these positions, he was the Business Manager Cereal and Snack Business Manager Cereal and Snack at Baker Perkins for more than 17 years from 1978 - 1996. Milling and Grain magazine recently met with Mr Sharpe to discuss his colourful career, his views on the current state of our industry and the many challenges that we are all set to face over the coming years.

You were born and raised in the UK. How did your career lead to you working for Bühler and ending up in the USA as its President and CEO of North America?

My career started with Baker Perkins based in Peterborough England as an Apprentice. Baker Perkins focused upon ‘biscuit – bakery- chocolate -confectionery’ plus cereal and snack equipment. Following my four years apprenticeship and foundation in mechanical engineering I took the decision to move into procurement. Baker Perkins supported continued education, which enabled me to complete a business degree with a focus on supply chain management. My next step was toward Sales with a stopover in contract management. Then my time in sales started with coverage of the Nordic region and UK. At this time, again with the support of Baker Perkins, I studied for a Marketing degree, which has helped me in so many ways. Within Baker Perkins I ended up managing the Cereal and Snack division globally. This led me to interact with Aeroglide Corporation, which ended up being my next home. My wife Kate and I moved to Raleigh NC for about 18 months to really get to know the team in Aeroglide. Upon completion of this work, we returned to UK with a baby girl who was born halfway through our time in Raleigh. From 1998 to 2008 I worked for Aeroglide building a business in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. In 2008, Bühler acquired the Aeroglide business, so this was the point where I joined the Bühler family. My next step was moving back to USA to lead Business Development for Bühler Aeroglide in 2012. Then in 2014, Bühler asked me to take over as President and CEO of the Bühler Aeroglide business. This position brought many challenges in terms of driving new business development and ensuring we could grow the business profitably. The full team in Raleigh got behind these goals and supported in a wonderful way. We worked every day on our values and building a culture that ensured we engaged everyone and provided an environment where lessons could be learned, with positive feedback! Then, in 2018 Stefan Scheiber and Dieter Vogelti asked me if I would lead the North American region for Bühler to help create a broader collaboration across all of the Bühler business units. So, on January 1, 2019, I officially took over from Rene Steiner as President and CEO for Bühler North America.

What is it about the milling industry and in particular the range of equipment your company supplies that keeps you motivated and driven?

Within Bühler, one of our core beliefs is that every human has a right to safe and nutritious food. With the milling industry being the foundation of Bühler, the products our milling customers supply provides staple foods for so many, globally. Our purpose, to create innovations for a better world, means that we get the opportunity to help these same customers strive daily for excellence in support of this purpose. For me, this is more than enough to get me out of bed every morning!

What are some of the personal challenges you have overcome in order to continue to lead a company that dominates the supply of milling equipment globally?

The challenges I deal with are really around understanding myself and putting myself in other’s shoes, be they customers or the team in Bühler. Remaining consistent in my approach and values every day is key. It compels me to be present when engaging with both our team and customers. When I am on task, it’s around being able to ‘disconnect to connect’ not allowing other stuff to get in the way.

Has technology reached its peak in making the milling industry more efficient?

I don’t believe so. We now have tools to create a more holistic examination of the total process, from the field to the bakery or store. We will find additional areas where improvements can be made! Just look at our Mill E3 concept and the opportunities it presents for millers. I think there are efficiency gains to be made, and technology and digitalisation will lead the way.

Bühler wants the milling industry to cut its waste, water and energy consumption by 50 percent by 2030. Are millers in North America working towards this target too and how important is this goal in your opinion to the future of milling?

This goal is not just about Milling. It’s a commitment made by Bühler to make these reductions in all our customers’ value chains. It was initially stated in 2016 as 30-30-30, then expanded to 50-50-50 at the 2019 Networking Days.

These goals really force the need to create collaboration across industries to learn and share opportunities and best practices while we drive the innovation necessary to address these targets and be able to sustainably feed 10 billion people by the year 2050. As you may have seen from the NWD 2022 event, these collaborations and innovations are growing exponentially.

Finally, what is the importance of milling in the eyes of consumers? What more must we do to prove that our sector is the most essential to the human condition in the years ahead?

Consumers sometimes struggle to connect the dots, in terms of the work that goes on before a product or ingredient is purchased by them from the supermarket or store. So, my thought would be to create the transparency needed to show consumers the efforts already on going in managing this essential resource, like improving yields and driving the reduction of energy use, and what that means for them individually and what it means for the planet. And of course, all this must be done while maintaining, and even improving quality and safety every single day.