5 minute read
FACE TIME: Andrew Poore of Pacific Optics
FROM ESSEX TO OZ!
We get to know Andrew Poore, General Manager Sales Australia and New Zealand, Pacific Optics.
My name is Andrew Poore, and I was born in Essex in the United Kingdom – the home of reality TV show, The Only Way is Essex (TOWIE Real Life TV). Growing up, I lived with my mum, dad, my younger sister Kerry, plus a very old cat that seemed to live forever!
Andrew Poore
I attended Hylands Comprehensive School, where you would always find me on the football (soccer) field kicking a ball around. As a child my life revolved around football, and football is still a constant in my life today, playing it or watching the English Premier League. The team I follow is Tottenham Hotspur. I’m a big fan of all sports, and now having moved to Australia I’m looking forward to finally attending my first AFL game.
I’ve come to Australia via living in New Zealand for many years with my beautiful wife, Tonya, and our two children.
Our daughter Sydney is currently studying her Masters in Criminology, and our son, Hunter, is in his final year of a Marine Engineer Apprenticeship. We lost our handsome German Shepherd in 2021, so currently we have no pets.
The Poore family's handsome German Shepherd Ryka sadly passed away in 2021.
I’ve been fortunate enough to do a lot of traveling over the years and have seen many parts of this great world – but I’d have to say that California and the Greek Islands are my favourite places to visit.
I’m currently living in Queensland and have taken up the role of General Manager Sales Australia and New Zealand at Pacific Optics. But the role is really not so ‘new’ to me as my history with the company dates back to 2005. Most recently I was working as the General Manager of Signature Marketing NZ, which is the New Zealand based sister company to Pacific Optics.
Andrew Poore and his son Hunter modelling some Pacific Optics workwear socks back home in New Zealand.
I’ve worked in the route channel for more than 16 years, supplying general merchandise products through Signature Marketing NZ, and daily fresh foods when I was with Goodman Fielder. This is all a far cry from my childhood dream, which was to become a police officer when I grew up!
I’ve had many highlights throughout my career, but if I had to name just a few, one would be when I was named Most Valuable Staff Member at Goodman Fielder, and another would be Signature Marketing NZ being voted as the number one best supplier by Coalface NZ a few years ago.
In my new Trans-Tasman role, I will continue to lead the New Zealand business while residing in Australia and leading the Australian National Accounts team.
Modelling Aerial sunglasses.
Pre-Covid, in my role as the General Manager of the NZ business, I was traveling to Australia at least once a month, so while I am already very familiar with the market, I am enjoying getting out and meeting customers. For me, the priority is always the customer and figuring out what we can do to improve our customer satisfaction. It’s about getting back to basics and truly understanding what our customer is looking for – because every customer and every business is different. Once you understand your customer, their needs, and their business plan, it’s then that you can figure out how we can help them to be more successful.
Building strong customer relationships is my passion and has been pivotal to the success of our NZ business. I hope to be able to inspire my new team at Pacific Optics Australia to share in that passion, and that together we can continue to build strong and successful partnerships with our customers.
Andrew Poore's children Sydney and Hunter Poore.
Technology evolves at such a rapid pace that we need to make sure that we’re getting all our products to market at exactly the right time for our customers. It’s the same with our sunglasses, which are constantly changing with styles, colours, and lens variations.
In general, the convenience industry is continually changing and I’m loving the direction that it’s going. Service stations are now so much more than just somewhere to grab a pie and a drink! Our general merchandise products should be part of this grocery top up basket, particularly as we see more people working from home.
Our greatest test is to continue growing the convenience retail opportunity. We have benefitted from converting grocery shoppers into more regular convenience shoppers. So, the next challenge is to grow the size of that opportunity. The transition from being seen as a service station with a convenience offer to now being seen as a true convenience retail destination, is the greatest opportunity – and one that we are here to help our customers with.
Andrew with his lovely wife Tonya Poore.
This all keeps me pretty busy, so I don’t have a lot of spare time at the moment, but when I do find some down time, you’ll find me kicking a football with mates, socialising, boating, or at the gym. If I could see myself anywhere in five years’ time, it would be traveling the world aboard my own boat!
