Pentre Group
For all your packaging & process solutions
Pentre Group
For all your packaging & process solutions
Craig Currie started work at Hearl Heaton in August 1986, when offices still ran on typewriters and fax machines. Forty years on, he leads Pentre's technical sales team, supplying products for AI data centres and deep-sea fibre optics.
Here he tells his story to Pentre Pulse, covering:
Hearl Heaton, in Liversedge, West Yorkshire, had been making things since 1809. Craig joined straight from school.
"It was something of a family tradition, all going to work for Hearl Heaton," he tells Pentre Pulse.
"I finished school in July 1986, but my birthday's the 14th of August, so I couldn't start until then. You had to be 16 to start work.
"I did the old YTS scheme and went to engineering training school: a year off the job, then placements every quarter. I got a full apprenticeship. The government paid me £27.50 and the company made it up to £51.50 a week.
"For the next three years you went around every department. The machine shop, the press shop, the welding shop, the plastic shop, then the works office and the general office."
Pentre acquired Hearl Heaton in 1989, a year after Pentre itself was founded. Craig worked his way up to operations manager and then general manager of Hearl Heaton, before moving to Pentre's Leigh office.
Since then, Craig has sold to customers from Mexico to Singapore.
"I've been to some interesting places," he says. "I counted up all the states I've been to in America and it came to 29. On the other side of the world, I've been to Korea, Singapore, Malaysia… It's a long way from Liversedge."
Today he focuses primarily on Hearl Heaton's ABS process reels still made in the UK, and the steel drums and reels made at Pentre Kovo in the Czech Republic. His role covers far more than quoting.
"I liaise with all our agents and provide quotations," he says. "I work with the Czech Republic on steel reels and drums, and with Hearl Heaton on ABS. I do Egyptian cargo filings, all the deep-sea freight and its nuances, even the CBAM [Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism] declarations.
"That comes from having done all the roles over the years. You can only learn a lot of things by doing them. I can talk across all our product lines from experience. It's never a case of 'I'll get back to you.'"
Craig has had quotations translated into most major languages, and at one point Hearl Heaton quoted into 52 countries in a single year. What would he tell someone new to the industry?
First, keep the language simple. "If you get too clever or too technical with the wording, it can be lost in translation. The Spanish spoken in Madrid is different from Spanish in each Latin American country, with all their nuances."
Second, shape your approach to the customer. "Standard quotations aren't enough in this industry. I've worked with several customers for years, and I pride myself on knowing their product, their industry and the freight systems available to them.
"Every quotation is unique to the customer. Some want just the core figures. Others want an eye-of-the-needle approach with drawings. Payment terms vary, delivery times vary. Some customers want email, some want WhatsApp. Some you can chase the same day; others you wait a week."
Third, learn by doing.
"I see a lot of people asking AI to answer their questions for them. But there's no substitute for learning by doing.
"It's all about understanding real people, the people you're dealing with."
From typewriters and fax machines to WhatsApp and AI, the tools have changed a great deal since 1986. Craig's approach hasn't: learn every part of the job, know each customer individually, and never say "I'll get back to you."