For this month’s Meet The Team we catch up with Ian Chapman who is Kilco/Kersia’s Product and Marketing Manager. He has worked for the company since early 2020 and talks about his role.
What was your career path to your role?
I started my career in financial services, then after 20 years I began working for Allflex looking after a £2 million account which included dealing with a host of merchants and individual business to promote, educate and distribute the product to the UK market. I also helped to win new business, hold evening events for equine and sheep shearing records. At the beginning of 2019 I organised two sheep shearing record attempts both of which were successful – my claim to fame!
Tell us more about your role at Kilco?
My main role is marketing based, helping the Ruminant & Pig and Poultry divisions within Kilco. This includes producing product collateral, product launches, budget support, website support, SAP data project and implementing social media for Kilco using Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. From a marketing perspective I’ve also been working closely with my colleagues Steve Bagshaw and Andrew Sedgewick supporting the acquisition of Holchem.
What responsibilities does your job include?
I organise a plethora of Ruminant and Pig and Poultry marketing promotions, which includes digital, traditional marketing, printed marketing collateral, product management and promotional merchandise. It’s a really varied and interesting role and allows me to learn more about all the different departments and functions across the company as a whole.
What’s your favourite part of the job?
It’s really hard to choose one specific element as I enjoy all aspects of my job. The diversity of my role is great and whilst like everyone it has been a very challenging time with COVID-19, working from home and not seeing my colleagues it has allowed me to learn the business and become more involved, remotely of course.
What does a typical day look like to you?
My days are varied and include working on promotions for various products, implementing a launch plan for our new and innovative products and ensuring that we are communicating to all our customers through the right channels. I liaise with lots of members of the team throughout the day and discuss the targets and sales plans as well as catching up with the R&D team. I also ensure that I’m up to speed with Steve and Andrew about the integration of Holchem into the Kersia business, and that it’s going well. We are always looking at how we can further improve and tweak our customer care and become stronger each day.
What’s your dream job?
It’s got to be living out my dream – I would have loved to played the rhythm guitar with The Beatles. In my eyes they changed the world.
