Just over a month ago, Ferovinum was lucky enough to welcome Helen Barugh to the team. Helen brings with her a wealth of experience that she has honed over nearly 20 years in the drinks trade, working with the great and the good across the industry.
Helen discusses what drew her to Ferovinum and why she is optimistic about the drinks trade despite some of the heavy head winds it is currently facing.
Q: Who are you and what’s your role at Fero?
HB: My name is Helen and I am the head of distribution in the UK for Ferovinum. I have had an extensive career working for some of the most trusted distributors in the industry. I started my career nearly 20 years ago at Diageo and from there got to work also in different sized organisations from PLB, Gonzalez Byass, Liberty Wines, and most recently at Mangrove as Channel Director of grocery.
Q: With so much experience within the drinks industry what made you decide to pivot to a fintech company like Fero? Was it a risk?
HB: I was super intrigued to start with, and it sounded on paper that it had huge potential to be revolutionary for the drinks trade. These opportunities don't come along very often and so you have to either grasp them and go on the ride, or regret it later as they pass you by. I knew the journey could be bumpy but also that it could also be incredibly exciting at the same time. What actually appealed was the unknown, and being able to be part of changing an industry that is traditional and set, to a greater extent, in its ways.
I wanted to take the time to understand it before I joined the company. Knowing the challenges that face the industry in terms of increasing costs, complex pricing, duty burdens and tariffs, basically all the extra charges suffocating brands and retailers – I could see how Fero could help. It could solve so many problems and that the risk was really worth that and the leap in my career. I just wanted to be part of it.
Q: For challenger brands, do you see Fero being helpful?
HB: In my most recent role I worked predominantly with the retailers. And day in, day out, I just saw the same challenges occurring. Issues with supply chain inefficiencies, challenges around brands having limited budgets to invest in their growth and trying to meet the hurdles rates expected by retailers.
Fero can hugely help and change all that. At the moment, you need someone to do your distribution for you. You need someone to do your sales for you. You need someone to do your marketing for you. You need someone to do your merchandising for you. You need someone to do your media for you. It's so complicated. And Ferovinum has the ability to do much of that in one place, enabling brands to be free of many of their challenges and really enjoy the growth they deserve after all the effort they've put into the product.
It gives our partners a fighting chance of really bringing something exciting to the customer and their consumers at the end of the day.
Q: You are just over a month in – how is it going?
HB: The company moves really fast, and that's the exciting part of it. We have new challenges on a daily basis to solve for our partners, and you bounce out of bed to do your best to fix them. It’s about driving solutions and change within a complex category. There is something new to learn everyday and that is energising.
I work with an incredible set of like-minded people and there are also some new areas I get to work in as well. Areas like product and technology, that I haven't been exposed to before, is helping to facilitate my own personal learning and development.
Q: Now you are bedding in and getting to understand how it works with funding and supply chain capabilities on a single platform – do you still think it can drive change?
HB: I think in principle, drinks is a traditional industry that hasn't changed hugely and has become more intertwined. It's got so intertwined now, it's difficult to actually un-pick and to breakdown the small bits that can be fixed.
Where I think Fero can really help is to enable brands and retailers to step out of the chaos onto a platform that delivers everything they need. The Ferovinum platform most certainly reduces supply chain and capital complexity and can hugely simplify how drinks brands can get to market and speak to their customers. Fero can also help support so many new and exciting drinks brands and bring them to market, which otherwise is incredibly difficult to do.
Fero's growth moves into its next stage
Fero is indeed lucky to have someone like Helen, with so much experience and deep knowledge of the industry as the business moves forward into its next stage of growth.
Mitchel Fowler, CEO and co-founder of Ferovinum said: “We're absolutely thrilled to have Helen join as our Head of Distribution in the UK. As the Ferovinum team works hard to reduce friction and increase efficiency for our brands, distributors, trade customers and retail partners, Helen's extensive experience is already enabling her to unlock win-win opportunities across the UK drinks value chain.”
If you are at all interested in learning more about Ferovinum and how you or your business might be able to benefit, please do get in touch with us.
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