Episode 6 Niamh Savage Hellmann Worldwide

We are delighted to be joined by Niamh Savage, General Manager of Hellmann Ireland. Hellmann is one of the world's leading logistics providers, operating in more than 170 countries, and over the past couple of years Niamh has been leading the growth of the business here in Ireland.

Today we'll talk about building a business from the ground up, the changing world of supply chains, leadership, technology and what the future holds for logistics."

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

This is the Supply Chain Ireland Podcast, the voices behind Ireland's supply chain, bringing you the people, the stories, and the insights that keep Ireland moving. Plus the latest news from home and across the globe.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

20% of your consumption passes industry to promote anything, not just oil, resource of LNG.

SPEAKER_03 0:28

This is Supply Chain Ireland Podcast with Kevin Byrne.

SPEAKER_04 0:32

Hello and you're very welcome to another edition of Supply Chain Ireland Podcast. Today I'm delighted to be joined by Neve Salvage, General Manager of Hellman Ireland. Hellman is one of the world's leading logistics providers operating in more than 170 countries. And over the past couple of years, Neave has been leading the growth of the business here in Ireland. So, Neve, uh good morning, and uh you're very welcome to Supply Chain Ireland Podcast.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

Good morning, and thanks so much, Kevin, for giving me the opportunity to join the podcast. That's great. Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 1:06

You're more than welcome. Tell us a little bit about yourself, Neve, and how did you find your way into logistics?

SPEAKER_00 1:13

Okay, so um back when I was 17 and I was finished school, that's 34 years ago now, uh, I had finished my leave insert and I actually wanted to be a PA or a secretary. And I applied for a secretarial course and got that. And we were sent on work experience one day a week to uh a company around the local area. I'm from Swords, County Dublin, so we were sent to local companies, and I was sent to Irish Express Cargo, which was an Irish freight forwarding company based in Santry. And I went in there one day a week, didn't know anything about freight forwarding. And after a couple of months there, they offered me a full-time role. Um, when I started there, I was working in their air export department, but the full-time role was actually a role in their accounts department. But as soon as an operations role opened up in the company again in their import department, air freight imports, I moved to that role, and that's where I really started from the ground up, um, doing their filing. It was faxing and photocopying and learning shipments from the start, learning how to do customs clearance and handle shipments and talk to customers. So I was there for five or six years, and then one of my colleagues who I'd worked with was actually going off to open Eagle Global Logistics or EGL. They were opening in Ireland then. And um I was asked if I was interested in a role there in the import department. So I went off to EGL and worked there for another six years, and that was really good. I learned an awful lot there, worked very long hours back then. It was weekend work and late nights um back then. And then eventually one of my other previous colleagues told me about a role that was open in the UPS supply chain solutions in the import team as an import team leader. And I went for that role and could was there for 18 years, but worked, started off in imports, then I was promoted to supervisor, then branch lead, and then eventually country manager for UPSSES. Um, and I learned so much there and met so many great people and you know, people that really helped me along the line, and you know, would mention your name and help promote you. I put my hand up for everything from a training point of view, whether it was this, you know, health and safety training or first aid and then GDP from the pharma side. So I got really involved in that as well. Um, and then after 18 years, I was a little bit at a crossroads career-wise. I could have either I was approaching 50 and I thought, will I stay in UPS? I can probably have a career there and probably stay there till I retire. Or do I want a new challenge and go and do something completely different? And simply by just looking on uh LinkedIn jobs, I saw an advertisement for a new company, new Freight Forwarder open in in Ireland. And I decided I'd just send an email off and say, okay, tell me more about this role. And they actually told me then that the role was pretty much decided and pretty much filled, but they said they'd still give my CV. And the following Monday I had a call to say they were actually still interested in speaking to me about the role. So um, three interviews later, three meetings later, they offered me the role and they told me that um Hellman Worldwide Logistics had an agent in Ireland, but that they were going to open in Ireland and it would be basically starting from the ground up in Ireland. So it was a really interesting challenge, really interesting to start. Something a little bit daunting, a little bit scary from the beginning, but it's been fantastic and really, really positive. And at the beginning, you know, you're you're obviously I was in a very secure job, so there was a little bit of fear, am I doing the right thing to leave this and move to another company? But as soon as I met the team there, the senior management team, um, I really liked them and they'd really, really good energy, really positive. I've been very supportive, especially the UK leadership team in helping us to grow. They had already kind of started it before I came in. So I did come in the first employee on my own on the first day, and then we were able to hire staff then for the team. So we spent the first year just building the business, building the brand. It's been difficult. It's definitely a challenge because no matter what, there are huge players in the free forwarding in Ireland. Um, they might know your name as potential customers, but may not necessarily helmet is a huge brand in other countries, but not necessarily in Ireland. So it's taken a while to build the brand, but uh it's been very exciting and definitely a great, a great challenge in Ireland.

SPEAKER_04 6:53

The the Irish operation is relatively new. Why was now the right time to establish a presence in Ireland from a Hellman perspective?

SPEAKER_00 7:04

Well, definitely they looked at Ireland as a country, such a growing country, and a huge amount of exports, um especially on the pharma side. And Hellman have several several different verticals within the company, um, different types of uh you know, imports and exporting and different verticals that they work on. And healthcare was obviously a huge one, huge focus. And the team that I have working with me also, as well as Hellman Globally having a big healthcare presence and healthcare team, they want to grow in Ireland. They saw it as a big opportunity and thought, okay, we need to get into Ireland and be a part of that. So that's been really exciting as well, you know, participating in lots of big tenders and getting our name out and meeting lots of the larger pharma companies in Ireland. It's been fantastic. Um, so yeah, it's been really, really good from that side.

SPEAKER_04 7:59

So like you're effectively building uh the Irish business side of it from the ground up. You know, in terms of experience, what has that experience been like?

SPEAKER_00 8:10

Um, it was a little bit daunting in the beginning, but the first year was definitely challenging. It took us a while. We had to literally put everything in place, um, get all of our, you know, between our GDP and our ISO and different, you know, certs in place. So having a small team in the beginning was good for that because Hellman gave us that opportunity to, they said, look, don't rush it. You know, you want to get the right customers and the right opportunities, take your time and build it at a good pace, instead of maybe hiring a huge team and sitting here waiting for the business to come in. So, what we thought was the best thing to do was to grow organically. And as we get new accounts that we need more staff for, we could add to the team. Um, and that's proved really, really good. Um, and also what I'm noticing is new potential customers, especially this year that we're meeting, there's so many new companies in Ireland growing. Um, and that I've met. And they were kind of a few, like one customer I met last week said to me, I'm a very small, I drove to Cork to meet them, and they said, We're a very small customer. We were still starting up, but and you've driven down to meet us, but they saw it as a positive. I said, Look, that doesn't matter what size, because we're still growing in Ireland and we want to grow with you. We have another pharma company that we dealt with that we started with the beginning of last year, and they said the same thing, and they are growing hugely in Ireland. So you can see a lot of new businesses starting up, and then they're looking for a free company that's a little bit different, that's really focused on customer service, which we are. We we don't want, I really found through the years talking to customers that they're not delighted with a call center. They don't really want to be speaking to a call center, they want to speak to somebody directly that they can have a conversation with that will pick up the phone to them and answer. So that's been a really good selling tool for us um in winning customers and retaining customers because everybody has their own direct mobile, obviously, their laptops, their desk phone, everybody's available to pick up pick up the phone. So that seems to be really good for us.

SPEAKER_04 10:31

Yeah, so the the personal touch with the customer is is vitally important. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:37

Yeah, absolutely. You know, and obviously from the AI side of things, it's a huge, it's great tools out there. And I think it's about using both of them. You know, you're you're getting the customer's getting the benefit of having, you know, the great technology that we have, but they're also getting that personal touch and they're getting to talk to somebody directly. I think the combination of the two works well.

SPEAKER_04 11:02

Yeah, it's a question I had for you actually on the AI side of it because it it's obviously dominating conversations across every industry. Um, what impact is it genuinely having in logistics today?

SPEAKER_00 11:14

Um, definitely from the technology side, it it is really good and there are lots of benefits to it. And you know, having that, let's say, track and tracing side of things is is fantastic, and that's increasing, and we're involved in that, and you know, having better systems for our customers, but I would say it's supporting rather than replacing people, that would be my view on it.

SPEAKER_04 11:43

Yeah. Every business has its challenges. What has surprised you most over the last couple of years?

SPEAKER_00 11:51

Over the last couple of years, challenges. Well, obviously, there's all sorts of different challenges. We had COVID. I remember the Ashclub a few years ago as well. Um there's always going to be challenges and things going on in the world that we have, especially from the logistics side. And I think with COVID, people, more and more people realized um the difficulty for the supply chain side of things and they looked at that. But I think it's definitely about looking at the issue, being resilient, being adaptable, being able to change, but also making sure that your customers are looked after. And if you can do that, um but I think if you can, you know, maybe the most some of the most difficult things are um, you know, so the challenges would be definitely building brand awareness, winning trust with customers. You'll get in in front of a new customer. Um customers are very loyal in Ireland to their freight forwarders. They tend to stay with them a long time. But what I'm finding is if you have the right team, you're balancing the expectations of the customer, and they'll be more inclined to give you an opportunity maybe with one lane or two lanes. Um but also looking at like the small and medium sized businesses, uh they really like that support and getting to talk to people and ask questions and support with their business, and that's really where we're finding um a lot of growth at the moment in Ireland.

SPEAKER_04 13:29

You've spoken about wanting to get the Hellman name, you know, out there in Ireland. What does success look like over the next three to five years?

SPEAKER_00 13:40

Um definitely growing the business and winning the right customers, uh, growing our team locally, um, having hopefully multiple buildings uh across Ireland, but having the right, the right customers and the right, the right service and being able to, we you can grow and have a huge company, I think everybody's worked for like larger companies, but it's not growing too quickly, growing at the right level that you can still look after your customers really well. Because like Hellman are a family company, they're still owned by the family, the Hellman family. Um, and you can definitely see in the culture they want the right customer experience. It's hugely important and a huge uh focus. They have a strategy for the called Forward 2030, and that's one of the most important things in that it's making sure the customer experience is really, really good. So I don't want it to be a case of yeah, you're not getting to the right person as a customer to speak to and get your problem solved. And that's what really what free forwarding is about. You're solving problems on a daily basis, um, whatever's been thrown at you, and trying to pre-empt them and trying to solve a problem before it becomes a problem. Um, so that's really where I would see it growing and getting the name out um across Ireland and being a really big successful company brand in Ireland is what we want to do.

SPEAKER_04 15:15

Very good. Between geopolitical tensions, rising costs, and changing customer expectations, what are your customers most concerned about today?

SPEAKER_00 15:28

Um, a combination of things, I would say. Uh, cost and price is obviously a big factor. Um, service is probably one huge one. Uh, transit times and making sure that they can ship from where they want to and at the right time. So we try and help them with forecasting, but obviously you can't forecast for everything. So we do our best to sit down with our customers and work out a strategy if they know they have a certain amount of shipments moving or say over the next month that we'll look and planning as much as possible, but you can't plan for everything. But doing your best and being proactive to them would be the would be the main thing. I think you're always going to have issues, but it's how resilient and how proactive you are, and how you're able to help the customer and get straight onto them and help them before it becomes look for alternative um ways to move their shipments as well would be a big thing. You know, whether it's moving to air freight, moving air freight to sea freight or vice versa. Uh looking at road options, looking at sea rail options, there's lots of options out there. It's just tailoring it to help your customer.

SPEAKER_04 16:36

Would you say businesses have become better at managing disruption?

SPEAKER_00 16:41

Yes, I would say over definitely over the last 10 years, it's kind of a thing where we're nearly used to it at this stage from the freight forwarding side. So it's like, okay, well, here's another challenge that we have. We don't, certainly from my side, we don't panic about it. Obviously, there is panic for customers, but it's trying to make sure the customers are calm and that they they trust you that you'll do your best to try and help them.

SPEAKER_04 17:05

Yeah. Ireland has become a global hub for industries like pharmaceuticals that you mentioned just a while back. Medical, yeah, medical devices and and technology, etc. Where do you see the biggest opportunities?

SPEAKER_00 17:21

Um definitely from both that you've said, pharma, um, you know, the active pharmaceutical export side of the business in Ireland is huge, but there's also a lot on the import side too. Uh importing raw materials into Ireland is huge. Medical devices, obviously, this amazing med device companies in Ireland who have a huge amount of exports, especially to the US. Um, and you know, yeah, there's so many. But also, I would say, like, as well as the pharmacide, uh, consumer goods is a huge one for Ireland on the export side. And I'm getting so many queries and plenty of new customers from that side, even on the import side, um, which is been which is great. And the warehousing side, we're getting a lot of requests from that for Ireland. There's just not enough warehouses, probably, in Ireland at the moment, to house everything. Um, but yeah, they would be the two. Fashion is another one, really huge one. There's some amazing even Irish brands that are exporting and been that are Irish brands. Even you can see from the cosmetic side, it's an awful lot of Irish companies um that are exporting now out of Ireland an awful lot of really, really good brands and good quality brands on the the clothing and cosmetic um side of the business. So they're also really good opportunities.

SPEAKER_04 18:46

On that side of things, yeah, for sure. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, because there's not a week that goes by and you're reading in the in the business post or or or the you know the business side of things that there's a new business uh after reaching out into new markets, which is great from uh the Irish perspective, you know.

SPEAKER_00 19:03

And when you meet them in person and they tell you about their story, a lot of them are like the bigger brands exporting out of Ireland have started in you know their garage.

SPEAKER_04 19:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:14

And they have just come up with an idea. And I think that's amazing. You can see that people will come up with an idea and maybe have an idea in their head for a few years. Now they're just gone for it in Ireland, which is really, really good.

SPEAKER_04 19:25

Yeah, it's great to see it. And yeah. You've built a business, grown a team, and represent a global organization. Uh, what kind of leader are you striving to be?

SPEAKER_00 19:39

Um fair, I would say. Um calm, calm under pressure, I hope. Um hopefully not too reactive. Um, you can't please everybody all of the time, and make you know, you can't, you are going to, you're not gonna not everyone's gonna like you, but that's okay. And I think if you are fair to the people that you're working with, and you are uh nice to everybody that you meet, because definitely in the freight forwarding business, you always end up working with the same people again through the years. So I think if you're you know fair and open with everybody and try to you know work well across globally and make connections with people globally in the freight forwarding side of things, it's a really good benefit. They'll always help you out then. Um you know, helmet are very strong in so many different regions, and they will help you to kind of make connections with all of the different regions and the verticals, and that's been really beneficial to for for Ireland as well, help with helping us.

SPEAKER_04 20:55

Wonderful. What what qualities do you look for when you're hiring people?

SPEAKER_00 21:01

Well, that's a good question. Um people that are willing to learn, who realize like myself, you don't know everything, and that you're able to put your hand up when you know when you make a mistake, and that's fine. That's okay. Everybody makes mistakes when you're learning. Um but definitely yeah, I'd look for people that are interested in the business, who have an interest to grow, learn, be successful, um, and yeah, want to put their hand up to to learn new things. Yeah, and work hard.

SPEAKER_04 21:42

Yeah, that's gotta be a part of it anyway for sure. Logistics has traditionally been viewed as a male dominated industry. Have you seen that changing during your career?

SPEAKER_00 21:55

Um yes, definitely. It definitely was a more Male dominated industry maybe 20, 30 years ago. I would say over the last 10 years, there's been a huge change. And it's definitely there are so many more women taking senior leadership roles in freight forwarders now than there was maybe 10 years ago, and bringing an awful lot of positivity and an awful lot of um you know growth to the freight forwarding industry as well. Um I mean I can I can speak from like the Hellman side. We do have uh and Christiane on the call as well, it's part of the we have um her space as well, which is you know joining all of the women in Hellman um for growth and and changes within within the company. And uh Hellman as part of their forward 2030 strategy has that as well. Diversity is a huge part of that. So I can definitely see a huge change in that over the past 10 years. Um and yeah, it's it's it can only can only get better and only continue and improve.

SPEAKER_04 23:11

If a young woman was listening to this today and considering a career in logistics, what advice would you give her?

SPEAKER_00 23:19

What advice? I would say put your hand up for every opportunity. Um don't be afraid to ask for what opportunities are available. Maybe move around different parts of the business. It's definitely a career that um you may what maybe might look at it as a young woman coming in and say, you know, uh planes and trucks and ships, is that really going to be something I'm interested in? But there's so many different sides of the business that you could get involved in. And there's definitely it's a job for life if you look after it. Um, but it's definitely male and female. I I don't really think it's about the the gender side if I was if I'm hiring somebody, it's more about how good is this person going to be at that role. Um, like my own team is it just by chance it's 50-50 male and female, but I didn't plan it that way. It's just the way it's worked out. It's really about like hiring the best people for the role. And whether it's male or female, that's the way I would look at it.

SPEAKER_04 24:25

Yeah. Well, I suppose more broadly, if you had a room full of graduates or young professionals, how would you convince them that logistics is an exciting career?

SPEAKER_00 24:37

Um, I would say every day is different. So if you want a career where uh no two days are the same, and that's a fact, you might come in and maybe if you're working in an import team, your clearance shipments are the same, but there's always going to be different things every day. And then there's so many different elements of the career that you can go into, lots of different sides of it, whether it's the HR side of it, whether it's you could be an implant in a you know, for a fray forager in a customer's building. Um, and you know, you could go into the sales side of it. There's lots of opportunity in the sales side of it, being out on the road, meeting customers, uh, there's IT, and then of course there's the operation side of it. So the world's your oyster. You can literally, some people are very happy to go in and they just want to a job where they can come in, a secure job, and work nine to five, and they're doing imports or exports, and that's absolutely great. But if you have any type of driver ambition and you want to do more than that, there's you can definitely do it once you show an interest. And you and you will get, you know, I would say get a good mentor within the company to help you as well, um, which is really, really good. And you know, work closely with a mentor and they'll give you advice if they're working in the company for a long time, they'll help you develop. I've been very lucky through my career. I've had really good people um through the years that that have helped me. Um, and that's really and I've you know said your name and said, oh, you know, she'll be able to do that for you. Why don't you move her to that department? So that's been really positive. Yeah, I would say get a good mentor.

SPEAKER_04 26:21

Yeah, for sure. We all we all need a good mentor.

SPEAKER_00 26:24

We all need that.

SPEAKER_04 26:26

For certain. Is is the jobs market challenging in Ireland at the moment, getting staff and retaining staff?

SPEAKER_00 26:35

Um, it's not too it's getting the right per people, yes, it can be a challenge. Um and sometimes you don't always get it right, but you know, most of the time retaining staff isn't a huge isn't a huge issue. Once you have the right people, you know, you will you'll definitely retain them. But um yeah, it can be it can be difficult and you can go through a lot of interviews before you get the right person. But but yeah, it it's okay. I would say it's okay if that's a that's a good answer.

SPEAKER_04 27:12

I'm gonna give you a quick fire round of questions here.

SPEAKER_00 27:15

So okay.

SPEAKER_04 27:16

Yeah, so basically sea freight or air freight. Coffee or tea tea. Biggest leadership lesson you've learned.

SPEAKER_00 27:32

Don't take anything personally.

SPEAKER_04 27:36

One word that sums up supply chains in 2026.

SPEAKER_00 27:43

It's too fast-paced.

SPEAKER_04 27:46

What's the best piece of career uh advice you've ever received?

SPEAKER_00 27:55

Don't be afraid to get behind the desk and take and step into a leadership role.

SPEAKER_04 28:00

If you could solve one challenge in global supply chains overnight, what would it be?

SPEAKER_00 28:07

Cheaper rates.

SPEAKER_04 28:13

Yeah, very good, very good answer. It's true. Neve, thank you so much for joining us today. It's been a fascinating conversation from your own career journey and building Hellman Ireland to the opportunities and challenges shaping supply chains both here in Ireland and across the globe. May I wish you and all the team at Hellman continued success.

SPEAKER_00 28:37

Thank you so much. I really appreciate the opportunity. And the same for you, and wish you great success with the podcast.

SPEAKER_04 28:43

Thanks very much, Neve.

SPEAKER_00 28:45

Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 28:46

Well, I think one of the big takeaways from today's discussion is that supply chains are about far more than moving goods from A to B. They're about people, innovation, resilience, and building partnerships that keep businesses and economies moving. To everyone listening, thank you for joining us for another episode of Supply Chain Ireland Podcast. If you enjoyed today's conversation, please subscribe, leave us a review, and share the episode with colleagues and friends across the industry. It really helps us continue bringing the conversation with the people shaping the future of supply chain and logistics. Until the next time, thanks for listening. Take care, and we'll see you on the next episode of Supply Chain Ireland Podcast.

SPEAKER_03 29:29

You have been listening to Supply Chain Ireland Podcast. If you would like to get in touch with us, you can email studio at supply chain irelandpodcast.ie. Supply Chain Ireland Podcast with Kevin Byrne. Stay up to date with the Supply Chain Ireland. Follow us on social media for news and new episodes.