________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
industry partners can collaborate on category development, training and new ideas.
Personal development is central to Consort’ s values.“ Most of our management team started at a junior level – in the sales office, on the vans, in the cold store – and worked their way up. The job of a leader is to create the next leaders. We provide a lot of training, structured feedback and genuine opportunity, which we’ re planning on formalizing with the launch of our Consort Academy. We also try to make people feel valued in small but meaningful ways. Everyone gets an Easter egg and an advent calendar. Free ice cream is obviously a given!” Dean laughs.
Paul continues:“ When employees get married, or have their first child, we give them additional paid time off. We’ re introducing firstday-at-school leave so parents can be there in the morning and afternoon. We also give people time to donate blood or contribute to their local communities. These are the things that matter to people. It’ s about giving as much as we can in whatever way we can.”
“ It all comes down to care – for customers, for our colleagues and for the people and businesses we work with,” agrees Dean.“ For example, premiumization is a massive trend now. Brands like Häagen-Dazs, Ben & Jerry’ s
102