For the fifth year in a row MorePeople were proud sponsors of the Sales Professional of the Year category at last month’s annual Grower of the Year Awards. The aim of this category is to recognise the value that the sales function brings to any business – even horticulture! One of the key features of people working in horticulture is the passion and enthusiasm that they put into their businesses and the products they produce. However, all this dedication, producing the plants they love to grow so much could easily go to waste without the back up of an equally dedicated team of sales professionals who, in turn, can help convey that passion to customers and then go on to make sure that they in turn get all the attention and high levels of customer service that they deserve.

Epitomising this very process is this year’s winner – Sara Phillips of Majestic Trees. In many ways Sara is the ideal candidate for this award. Originally a sales manager in the paper industry she then seized the opportunity afforded to her during a career break, whilst raising her children, to develop her long held interest in horticulture. After completing studies in both the RHS and City & Guilds syllabuses she joined Majestic Trees and over the last 7 years she’s utilised her horticultural knowledge and sales management expertise to great effect and played a pivotal part in the rapid growth of Majestic’s commercial tree nursery. So congratulations to Sara from all at MorePeople.

Unusually this year we’d also like to bask in a little reflected glory from the winner of this year’s NFU sponsored Young Grower of the Year award – Paul Simmonds of Cornerways Nursery. One of the perennial questions we’ve been asked ever since we stared our business in 2000 is - where is all the bright young talent that the industry needs for a healthy future going to come from? Well ever since we placed Paul as a raw graduate in December 2004 we’ve known that if we could clone a few like him every year we’d have had a ready made answer to that annual query! So congratulations to Paul on his success and also well done to Nigel Bartle at Cornerways for recognising that, just like the plants they produce, even the brightest young talents can’t reach their potential without some nurturing and investment. So could it also be co-incidental that Paul’s just completed the class leading MorePerformance Leadership Development Programme!