Page 13 - SHS Inform (V25) NEW_Neat

Spotlight Feature Spotlight Feature

John Heynen John Heynen
John Heynen
John Heynen
What is the most rewarding part of your job? calmer now. Secondly, my father, for managing
I love interacting with people which has made the to bring up my twin and I after our mother died
last year or so a little challenging! I get a huge buzz when we were 11. Having now been a parent
out of seeing individuals in my team grow and myself, I cannot imagine how tough it must
develop. Watching them build their capabilities have been and amazingly we turned out alright,
& skills, and having a bigger impact upon our although my simple tastes in food probably
business, is what matters. stem from his cooking.

What are your future plans/ambitions for SHS GB? Where is your favourite place?
We’ve just laid out our Vision 25 Plans, which I’m fortunate to live in a lovely house in a fabulous
involve further growing the top line revenue of village, so home would be fairly near the top of
the business through developing existing brands the list. Outside of that, Spa Franchorchamps
and bringing in scale new ones, whilst making our racetrack in Belgium has lots of happy memories.
business more efficient, thus reducing the amount
of working capital invested and improving our What do you like to do outside of work?
profitability. We will also be looking to play a I love socialising with friends, so that takes up
bigger role in supporting the overall SHS Group, a lot of weekends. I play tennis and run a bit
whether that be in terms of helping Group brands I love watching the rugby, I am an avid Wales
or leveraging trade engagement. This will all be supporter. I also have a little racing car that I
built on a platform of providing great service to take on a few trackdays each year including an
John Heynen joined the SHS Group as Managing What attracted you to the SHS Group? both our customers and brand owners, enabled annual trip to Spa in Belgium.
by developing a great team of people, and allow

Director of SHS Sales & Marketing GB in August Lots of things! The opportunity to work for a us to make a significant contribution to the What luxury would you have
2019. In this edition’s Spotlight feature we find family-owned business that genuinely lives by overall Group. on a desert island?
out more about his career to date, his plans and its values yet has sufficient scale to influence Assuming some of the
ambitions for his team and what he likes to do customers was hard to resist, plus having What is the best advice you have ever received? sand is flat, a Lamborghini
in his spare time. John has worked in the FMCG worked in FMCG for (too) many years, I knew Anyone can make things complicated. The difficult Aventador……..
industry for many years and in various senior the business and Karen & Marcus and liked bit is making it simple so everyone can understand.
roles with Molson Coors and United Biscuits. A how they operated. I really enjoyed the interview What is your favourite film and why?
racing car enthusiast, it’s no surprise that John process and hit it off with Elaine, Arthur and Who do you most admire and why? I still know all the words to National Lampoons
is gearing up for high level growth. Chris. The fact that the office is 25 minutes Two people immediately spring to mind. Firstly, Animal House! It reminds me of great times with
away was also a bonus. Sarah (not just saying that: she probably won’t my school friends when I had no responsibilities.
Tell Us About Yourself? read this!) who for many years had to juggle a big
I’m married to Sarah and our silver wedding In 50 words describe your career to date? job in London, bringing up Lottie and managing What is your motto in life?
anniversary is next year. We have a daughter I started as a Graduate Trainee/Merchandising our family life, although things are thankfully much If you’re too busy to laugh, you’re too busy.
Lottie, who graduated from University last Manager at Tesco, followed by five years in
summer and starts work with Nestle on their commercial roles at United Biscuits. I enjoyed
graduate scheme in September. We live in a five years at Pepsico with Walkers and I had an
little village on the side of Bredon Hill with our international Drinks role. Fast forward to eight
Westie Freddie and have a great village social years at Molson Coors culminating in the role
life! I’m also an identical twin. I was born in of UK/Ireland Sales Director. I also worked for
Cardiff (as was my brother!), as my mother’s six years as Commercial Director at R.H. Amar,
side of the family is Welsh and my father is half a family run fine food distributor, prior to joining
Dutch, hence the strange surname. SHS in August 2019.

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