Sales Manager, UK
Andy Freer
Andy Freer began his career at Vikan as an area sales manager in 2005. Almost 4 years later, he was given responsibility for the larger national UK distributors, and 2 years after that, he was promoted to UK Sales Manager. For the last few years he has also been responsible for leading the International Food Group team.
Andy has been part of Vikan for many years now, and he feels confident in stating that the company’s overall approach to sales remains the same: Stay close to end users through visiting them, identifying their cleaning challenges, and providing solutions. However, Andy said that customers have become more and more busy, which is why it’s so important that Vikan is their go-to partner for cleaning and sanitation issues.
This close, personal approach was tested during the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic. For all the years Andy has been with the company, he said this was the time they faced the biggest changes. Instead of being able to visit customers, which he describes as Vikan’s most important value-added service and differentiator from competitors, they had to discover new ways to interact with them. Vikan introduced the Virtual Site Survey during the pandemic to help facilitate that close relationship without the cost or health risk of on-site visits.
"The best part of working for Vikan, is being able to make a positive difference in nearly every customer meeting. It is a great feeling going into these meetings knowing you have the best products in the world"
Andy, Sales Manager
The feeling of making a difference makes Andy proud to work at Vikan. He said that knowing that he’s going to help keep food production safer because of their high quality, hygienically designed products set working at Vikan apart.
Looking forward, Andy also states that Vikan must continue to listen to customers’ needs. They are key to future success. Further, he advises that Vikan never compromise on quality, as quality always wins throughout any market sectors.
“It has been a privilege to work for a company like Vikan,” Andy states. “It is fantastic to work for a company where your colleagues have the same work commitment and values as yourself. I have never once heard a comment ‘that is not my responsibility’. Everyone is willing to help each other for the benefit of the company.”
Do you have a funny story from your time at Vikan you would like to share?
There are many funny stories and memories from the past years, a lot of which happened during the Christmas parties. One of my favourite memories was when I was part of the Vikan Boy Band, which included an English man, a Danish man, and a Japanese man. As you can imagine, the end result did not sound too good!