Thomas
Commercial / Little Brother
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I have two big sisters – some may say I was fortuitous, others pity me … but it forced me to become a bit of a game changer! I have never had any interest in falling into someone else’s plan so designing my own career path, founding and starting up a business was always going to be on my radar. O&3 had to happen. And, what is more, I always knew one thing for sure: growing up around our family business, playing games and earning our pocket money, we each derived some very different, equally useful skill sets. So if I was going to start this business with anyone, it was going to be with two of my greatest allies- my sisters.
‘Slurp’ was my first business, cocktail flaring, which I set up while at university. I loved it, the lifestyle loved it, the studies not so much, so the final year meant that Slurp had to go while I ensured the letters after my name were secured. And then the oil industry called at The Kerfoot Group; after spending a few months working on the food side of the business I recognised an opportunity to build the Kerfoot Speciality Oils division, servicing the cosmetic and pharmaceutical markets. For ten years I focused specifically on these extremely versatile ingredients: understanding the value they could add to my client base, ensuring the next trends were available to them – always working on their technical ability as well as the marketing opportunities.
I say to the girls most days: “the brave may not live forever, but the cautious do not live at all!” O&3 is a company with culture, a business of change and a platform for growth. Something tells me this is going to be a fun ride…!