It’s been a while since we profiled your brand reps – aka business development managers and executives etc. to give them a couple of their official titles.
Some might say it’s been too long. So here’s the third of our ten, and we enjoyed catching up with them so much and there are so many of you doing a similarly grand job, we’re going to feature reps every month. Get in touch if you want to be included.
Harry Olorunda
Business Development Executive
Halewood Wines & Spirits
West of Scotland
Marketing graduate Harry, 34, first got interested in being a rep while managing bars in Glasgow, like Partick’s Pacific Tiki Bar (now closed). Now he sells to bars and hospitality venues right across the West of Scotland.
He says, “I was fascinated by the job and would chat to all the reps when they came in to find out all the ins and outs about the job. This led to my first brand rep job with Emporia Brands. Now I look after Halewood’s premium portfolio, like Whitley Neill, Dead Man’s Fingers, and Crabbie’s.”
“I love it. Getting to understand the commercial side, back-of-house, the manufacturing and marketing that goes into creating one single bottle of liquid. My degree is in marketing, but I prefer the activations part. I really enjoy selling, what a buzz, and seeing the customer satisfaction from the middle to end customer is something else. I tell the story from store to pour.”
He also worked with Fraser McIlwraith’s Glasgow Cocktail Collective, winners of Cocktail Initiative of the year at last year’s virtual Scottish Bar & Pub awards.
Says Harry, “I worked behind the scenes with bars on the infrastructure to get them all on board with it.”
He’s not been furloughed like some reps and has worked throughout but the camaraderie hasn’t been lost. Glasgow reps play football every week and Edinburgh is starting their own team, as is Dundee apparently.
“We are in discussion about creating a Reps League. We can’t see each other out and about like we used to in pre-Covid days so it’s all about creating new opportunities to get together.”
