1) What our Senior Purchasing, Merchandiser & Planning Manager gets up to when we’re not looking 👀
‘The job role covers purchasing, merchandising and planning which covers all aspects of stock. Stock reporting, PO’s and stuff like that. It’s a lot of pricing work, backload ordering and general reporting of the business, from both a sales and a stock point of view.’
2) Describe your role in three words!
‘World’s longest job title or lots of spreadsheets haha.’
3) What do you find most challenging?
‘Keeping on top of emails. It’s a daily battle, to say the least!’
4) What do you love about the job?
(And you can’t say everything 😏)
‘It has to be the analytical side of it, I’ve always loved data manipulation. Building and reporting on different projects to how we see things and how we look at things and whatnot.’ (CJ is our spreadsheet whiz!)
5) What is your favourite meme of 2021?
‘This pretty much sums up my experience of Covid.’
(We’re all in it together with this one CJ!)
6) What is your favourite Swan product?
‘It’s got to be the Nordic Coffee Machine or The Stealth Grill. I want the Grey Nordic Coffee Machine for my house and I love the stealth grill because it looks so smart.’
7) What do you listen to on your way to work?
‘Well, I have a playlist with about 2000 songs on there so it’s pretty much at random. It can vary from anything from heavy metal to rap, it’s a complete mixture. There are also some classics from when I was around 16 like pop-punk and stuff. I just throw it on shuffle and what comes on, comes on.’
(The words of a man who lives life on the edge!)
8) What song is your guilty pleasure?
‘I’m gonna get slated for this, especially if one of my brothers sees it on Linked In or something but, I don’t know why, I’ve always enjoyed Justin Bieber’s song, Sorry. That’s the only one that I like though.’
(Just in case CJ’s brothers are reading this, he’s a pretty cool character around the office apart from this one slip-up).
9) Name one thing you’re grateful for.
(the Swan team, obviously!)
‘One thing I’m grateful for would definitely have to be my son! And my lovely better half, family and friends of course.’
10) What is one thing you want to achieve this week?
‘I’m currently building the new reporting dashboard for the business so I’d like to try and make good headway on that! That’s one of the projects I’m currently doing. And I’ll also try to catch up on emails!’ (A weekly goal for everyone here at Swan!)
11) What is your favourite National Day?
(Out of all 365 of them!)
‘Well, if there’s a National Day for Burgers then I’m all in! I’d probably go for National Pizza day as well, that’s got to be up there! Anything food-related, that’s fair play.’
12) What is your favourite weird food combo?
(Spill those beans!)
‘When I was a kid (really little), I grew up in a pub and I always used to dip Salt & Vinegar Walkers crisps in Coca-Cola. Because my Dad owned the pub, I could just (between games of pool) grab myself half a pint of coke and a packet of crisps! I don’t do it anymore but I used to love that.’
13) What’s the one colour you would love to fill your house with?
‘I wouldn’t necessarily fill my house with one single colour, but there is one colour that I really like. Me and my partner are currently doing up a house, she’s recently shown me many, many doors and there was one that I loved. It was this duck egg green colour. I just thought, I absolutely love that colour and I definitely want more of that in the house. It’s a great colour.’
(The sheer enthusiasm for this one colour was enough to make us go and Google Search duck egg green, it really is a great colour.)
14) What is your favourite film?
‘It depends on which genre! If I was having a lazy day I’d probably put on a comedy. I love any comedies to be fair, but Happy Gilmore has to be my top favourite. But when it comes to a more serious film that doesn’t involve Adam Sandler, it’d probably be something like Shawshank Redemption or Pulp Fiction.’
