After almost a decade honing his expertise across its entire business portfolio, Hobart has announced that Paul Ricketts is to take on the newly created role of National Account Manager for Consultants, Projects, and Contract Caterers.
Ricketts takes up the mantle on a remit of continuing to support consultants and kitchen project houses to deliver large-scale projects. For the past two years, he has been working alongside the highly respected Steve Wallace – who will retire in 2021 – focusing on Hobart’s consultant business, out on the road, showcasing solutions to the company’s innovation-hungry consultancy partners, and building relationships.
Starting life as a chef, Ricketts initially joined Hobart as a cooking specialist for the South East of England. He has also worked across the manufacturer’s warewashing portfolio as a Technical Sales Executive, designing and implementing large warewash schemes.
Midway through his tenure, Ricketts spent a two-year hiatus away from the business working with renowned kitchen project house Hallmark as a Business Development Manager, responsible for full turnkey solutions from design right through to project management and handover to the client.
Ricketts has already been blending his specialist product expertise and project management skills in a consultant-facing role. He now makes the jump to this newly created position where, alongside helping maintain and grow Hobart’s consultancy business, he will spearhead several new communication initiatives, including a targeted series of consultant webinars.
On the new role, Ricketts commented, “I’m delighted to be making this move, further embedding myself in the world of consultants and kitchen project houses and using my varied skillset and experience to add value at every turn. Knowing intrinsically what really makes consultants sit up and take notice, we’re particularly excited about some of the new initiatives we’re bringing to market.
'Consultants crave newness, innovation, and equipment with a real USP, but they are also extremely busy and often require information in short, highly relevant bursts. We’re confident these new ideas will be extremely well received. I can’t wait to share more details!”