In the latest of our features on Ideal Standard colleagues and their careers, we hear from Export Director Dave Larreta, who took on the jet-setting role just as international travel – and the world in general – came to a halt because of the pandemic. It’s a long read but a fascinating insight which reveals the building blocks that brought Dave to where he is now.
Tell us about your education and early career.
I wasn’t really one for formal education; it wasn’t suited to me, or I wasn’t suited to it. I left school at 16, as I was then part of a rugby academy program, which could have led to a professional career. However, that wasn’t to be for me as I was involved in a car accident aged 18 which ultimately put an end to that dream. I also think it’s unlikely that I was actually good enough anyway.
As I’d bet all my cards on being the next big thing in rugby, I didn’t really know what to do next. I was rubbish with any kind of mechanical or trade-like skills, so I started temping in various businesses, where I eventually ended up at Thomas Cook. I was just working in their mailing department, but there were some opportunities to give sales a go in their call centre, so I applied for the role and was successful.
This would start my career in sales; I loved that job, what better product could you want to sell than holidays? People are always happy to be booking a holiday and I loved it. It was shift work, and I used to work 13-hour days, four days on, four days off, which was also great because if I booked 4 days holiday off I would get 12 days off work, which allowed me to use the benefits of working in travel, and get some really good, low-cost trips away.
I continued to work here for five years and was promoted a couple of times but eventually I wanted to earn some more money. The travel industry is great. But being well paid is not one of the benefits, which lead me to look for a field sales role.
What was your first external sales role?
I got a job as a retail support manager for British Ceramic Tiles, looking after major national DIY store displays. It was a great experience and taught me loads about self-discipline, being out on the road, journey planning and so on. I did this for just over a year, and then went for a full sales role at another ceramic tile company, Pilkington’s.
Again, loads of lessons learnt here and actually having a sales target was what drove me to achieve over and above here. I was really lucky to also have a close relationship with one of the national account managers, who showed me that sales isn’t just about turning up with a sample, and expecting someone to buy from you. He was really analytical and it helped me to see that there is more to sales than just the ability to sell a product. If you can solve a problem for a customer, you can normally benefit far more than just being able to sell them something. Unfortunately, the company went into administration – not my fault! – so I had to look for another job.
I then joined another ceramic tile company, a Spanish business called Grespania, who were trying to grow in the UK. Again, this was a great job and really opened my eyes to export as 80% of Grespania’s production is exported! I was with them for five years as southern regional sales manager but ended up looking after the south of the UK plus Qatar and Oman. They needed someone who could travel and asked me if I was up for it. It was supposed to be a short term solution but I ended up doing it for a couple of years.
How did you get into the bathrooms industry?
I moved to Heritage Bathrooms, part of the Bristan Group, as an area sales manager, again looking after the Midlands. I really enjoyed working for Heritage, as it was a small business unit within a larger organisation, which gave me the opportunity to work on some larger accounts, like Saint Gobain. After just over 18 months of being there, Bristan were trying to grow the Heritage brand internationally and I changed from selling to customers in Birmingham to customers in Dubai. I was responsible for the Middle East and Africa regions, and my boss was looking after Europe and the US. It was hard role, as being a de facto distributor because Heritage don’t have any manufacturing anymore, and having only classic sanitaryware to offer, it was even harder as much of the Middle East is focused on modern designs. It was then decided after a couple of years, with pockets of relative success, that they didn’t want to continue with exporting, and they would focus on the domestic market.
This then led me to Ideal Standard. Adam Evans had just joined the business, looking after the independent merchants, and a couple of weeks later I then joined as a key account manager within his team. This was a great time to join the “indies”, as we hadn’t really engaged with them for a number of years, and in some cases it was like starting from scratch with them again. After nearly four years of successfully achieving my targets, Adam was then promoted to channel director and that opened up the opportunity to take over the role that he had just vacated as the channel manager, looking after the team and again, I am pleased to say, as a team we also manged to achieve some more success in growing the channel year on year.
How did the export director role come about?
There were some rumblings that the ageless John Merrick was planning to retire from his role looking after the UK’s export markets. This caught my attention and I decided that it could be a good promotional move for me, to run a channel, but I must admit I was a little apprehensive about the role, as it was – and still is – a significantly lower turnover for Ideal Standard than the independents channel, which I was still really enjoying being part of. But sometimes in life you need to take some calculated risks and after some discussion and assurances that the ambition was to grow the channel and the team in the coming years, I thought it was a risk worth taking. I was lucky to have been successful at the interview and then the world stopped, as COVID was now with us. Not a great time to be in a new role that requires international travel when you’re locked not only in your own country but in your own home for a couple of years. Obviously, I had to adapt and actually continued with the indies role alongside the export role until the start of 2022, when I took the channel on full time.
I was incredibly excited when I was offered the role and was looking forward to coming up with a strategic plan for growth in the channel. Having previously worked in export roles, it was always a passion of mine to explore new markets and work internationally. I enjoy new cultures and you quickly learn how to adapt to them when you are trying to sell to them, that’s for sure. You wouldn’t believe it but they can be very different from country to country and you have to adapt quickly. I guess I got the travel bug from working in the travel industry, so when the opportunity presented itself to travel for work, I have always had a strong pull to this.
What about your time with the business helped prepare you for this senior position?
I was fortunate to be part of the original talent development programme at Ideal Standard, which seems like a lifetime ago now. I owe a lot to this course, as it taught me a huge amount about myself, and gave me clear improvement goals and targets. I really utilised this course for everything it could offer and felt at the end of it I had made a step change in my own self-awareness and others’ perception of me. This helped me to create an improvement plan in order to help me achieve my aspirations, so far. I continue to work on my plan, although the goals have changed, with what I would like to achieve now, but I can’t speak highly enough of the talent program and what it has done for me over the years.
What do you enjoy about the role and the business?
My role is fantastic and can and will be a strategic part of the business going forward. It may not bring in the biggest numbers but it offers us true incremental growth opportunities, and I am looking forward to not only growing the sales number but also growing the team over the next couple of years.
Ideal Standard is an amazing global business and can offer so much opportunity to anyone who joins it. Like every business it has its challenges but it has lots of opportunities to grow and develop your career in the business. You have to be willing to invest in yourself too; it won’t and can’t always come from the business but one thing I am sure about is that if you’re willing to try and possibly put yourself out of your comfort zone, then the business can support you with your career aspirations.
What advice would you give to people starting out on their Ideal Standard career?
I can’t stress enough that self-learning is a key element to progressing your career. Please, please speak to your manager and other managers about how you can help or support them, alongside your existing role. You will be surprised how much you can learn from a “side hustle” with other people and teams, so don’t be afraid to try something new, even if its outside of your current job role or responsibility.
I am also a big reader of – well, listener to – business books. I know it’s not for everyone, and even my wife and kids are sick of hearing them in the car, when my phone connects and I quickly turn them off, but honestly I can say I have picked up some invaluable tips from some of the books I have listened to over the years. My favourite is Shoe Dog, which is a story about Nike. It’s a long one, but it shows what can be achieved if you are willing to work hard and invest time and passion into something, but also have a little bit of luck along the way!