Meet Tarryn Brownlee - New Financial Director

Describe yourself in three words.

Inquisitive. Direct. Positive.

Can you tell us a bit about your background?

I grew up in South Africa but first came over to the UK when I was 18. At that point, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do yet, so I thought, why not travel the world a little bit? My sister already lived in the UK, so I decided to start there. I hired a car as soon as I arrived and drove all around the country.

When I decided to extend my stay in the UK, I started to work in finance and accountancy environments. I’d been temping since the age of 14 during school holidays, so I was already quite used to working in an office environment. Whilst I was temping, I was offered an apprenticeship with Nisbets and a permanent role – that was a great opportunity, so I jumped at the chance. The next four years involved working all day and studying for my accountancy exams during the evenings and weekends – it was extremely demanding, but it set me on the right path for my future career with great experience and a recognised qualification.

I ended up staying with Nisbets for 10 years, and by the time I left, I’d decided that the UK was home. I eventually convinced my husband, who I’d met in high school back in South Africa, to join me in England, and our son was born not long afterwards.

How did your career lead you to Prowrap?

I left Nisbets as a Retail Finance Manager and moved to a company called Garrett Ingredients, a food ingredients trader. The company didn’t have a finance function at the time I joined, so my job was to hire a finance team, set up IT systems and establish reporting for the business within a very short period of time.

After my first 6 months at Garrett Ingredients, I was offered my first directorship. I will be eternally grateful to have such supportive mentors from the group company that owned the business to ensure that I was successful in the Finance Director role. It wasn’t always plain sailing, but you can either run from high-pressure situations or treat them as an opportunity. Maybe I was a bit naïve, but I decided to embrace it and make the most of the opportunity that I was afforded.

Five years down the line, I’d found success in my role, and the owners decided they wanted to sell up. I then moved to Abergavenny Fine Foods, which was my first experience of manufacturing – I had very much enjoyed being in the food ingredients trading business and wanted experience of food production. It was another brilliant experience in a very different kind of business, but one that was much more akin to Prowrap, with the office and the main factory in the same building.

The business had experienced a bit of misfortune in previous years, with their last factory burning down after a lightning strike. The main focus of my role, therefore, was to help get the business back on track for growth. To support this goal, we made sure the management team was aligned on a strategy, we set milestones and KPIs for all areas of the business, and visualised the progress on screens around the premises for the whole business to participate in. We spent a lot of time collecting and analysing data, but it was the people who made the difference. It was a real success story – so much so that the shareholders decided they wanted to sell it!

What was it about Prowrap that appealed to you?

I’m always interested and open to new experiences, and while Prowrap is different, it is still familiar as it’s in a manufacturing environment (like my previous two roles). Changing industries will be positive for my own learning and development.

A new role will always have a learning curve, but anyone who gets to know me will know that I’m a very curious, inquisitive person. Nothing is off limits, and I always ask lots of questions about a topic until I completely understand it. Hopefully I can bring all of my experiences and learnings to support Prowrap and continue its success