Joe Bernhoeft is Group Finance Director at Barbour, Ryecroft Glenton clients for over 40 years.
Barbour is the internationally renowned clothing manufacturer and retailer established in 1894 in Market Place, South Shields. Today the 5th generation family owned business remains headquartered in the North East, in Simonside, South Shields.
How did your career get you to where you are now?
Having graduated from Edinburgh University with a degree in Maths, I started an internship with ICI Paints in Slough in raw materials procurement. I enjoyed the analysis work and the direct impact on the business and so I decided to join their Finance Graduate scheme and achieved my CIMA qualification. After four years I returned to the North East to work for P&G in the Global Service Centre focussing on supply chain, manufacturing and change delivery management.
I left P&G to become Financial Controller of Smurfit Kappa, the corrugated packaging company, gaining experience in all aspects of internal control, financial accounting and the commercial side of the business.
I then felt it was time to gain experience of working overseas and I moved to Luxembourg to help set up the European supply chain and transportation finance function for Amazon. This gave me a great understanding of e-commerce, operations and international supply chains.
I moved back to the UK and joined Barbour as head of finance in 2018 and was appointed Finance Director in 2019.
As well as Finance Director you have a few other roles at Barbour: please tell us a bit about them
Since joining Barbour I have had the opportunity to take on broader responsibilities outside of Finance, which I very much enjoy. The wider operational and IT responsibilities pull me into different parts of our business, giving me a better perspective and deeper understanding which in turn feeds into my understanding of the business decisions and processes that drive our financial performance.
What do you find most rewarding about your job at Barbour?
I really enjoy the variety of the role. No two days are ever the same and the pace of change brings continual challenges. It is great working with the wider team, as we collectively succeed in moving our business forward. Barbour is of a size where you can directly influence the results, direction and approach and that is very satisfying.
Barbour is a very successful business: how have the recent challenges of Brexit followed by Covid impacted you?
Both Brexit and Covid impacted on supply chain, order fulfilment, speed of delivery and placed pressure on IT systems and digital platforms. We had to work hard to overcome these challenges across the business functions. Covid also pushed us forward in developing and growing e-commerce and considering how we could make selling to our wholesale customers a more digital process.
What advice would you give to your younger self with the benefit of hindsight?
Experience across a variety of disciplines and businesses has been something that has given me great job satisfaction. I would encourage anyone to experience different cultures across a breadth of functions and business environments to help develop skills that enable you to be an effective leader in any situation. Personal and professional growth in balance is of course crucial: making time to invest in family and friendships is something not to be deprioritised or downplayed on the journey through your career and I would encourage my younger self to have appreciated that earlier!
When you are not at Barbour what do you enjoy doing
I really enjoy spending time with my family, particularly doing activities outdoors, any sports from tennis and squash to football and rugby. I can also be found pitch side at weekends coaching Tynedale Rugby under 7’s!