International Women's Day 2022

Here at Regal New Zealand King Salmon, we are lucky to be in the company of great women! We celebrate everyone, from frontline to zoom calls, it is a priority for us to share in our collective wins. 

This year's theme #BreakTheBias is demonstrating a commitment to a world free of bias, stereotypes and discrimination.

So we pledge to celebrate women's achievements in order to #BreakTheBias, by highlighting an interview with one of our amazing Team Leaders, Anna Bevin.  

A mum of four with a fur baby and hubby at home in Nelson, Anna Bevin is an active adventurer and loves to spend her spare time at fishing competitions or out on the water kayaking or boating. Anna and her husband Rico decided to travel around New Zealand once the kids had left home, working along the way. They landed in Nelson two years ago and have been loving the top of the south lifestyle ever since.

By day Anna is the New Zealand King Salmon Customer Services Team Leader, based at our Bullen Street factory where our salmon is processed. Anna has a team of five in the busy and ever-changing customer service office. This is where all the orders are processed for customers, planning and logistics are arranged and consumer complaints are actioned.

A typical day in this office starts with the orders rolling in before 11am so her team can forecast numbers with the harvesting boat on the salmon farms. As a fast-moving and fresh product, there is a lot of planning that goes into harvesting the right amount of salmon on the right day and getting it to the customer as quickly as possible. King salmon are harvested in the Marlborough Sounds and then are driven to our Nelson facility to be processed the same day, then sent out to customers or on shelves the following day or two later.

Some of the big New Zealand customers Anna and her team talk to regularly are Foodstuffs, Progressive, Fresh Choice supermarkets, sushi stores such as St Peirres and Mako Mono, plus the wonderful foodservice customers like your local restaurants. They also process all international orders as our sales are split down the middle with 50% heading overseas and 50% staying in New Zealand.

Anna has been at NZKS for 18 months and says “the best part of my job is definitely my team and colleagues, but I also really enjoy the challenge of finding solutions for our customers and NZKS is particularly great at working together to find outcomes to keep customers happy.”

“The hardest part of customer service is when we don’t have enough stock to fill the orders and get the customers what they need.”

In her spare time, Anna is studying for a Diploma in Business Leadership and Management through the Southern Institute of Technology. But for now she is happy where she is: Anna believes that customer service is an amazing stepping stone to enter a business and get to know how it works, which could lead to further opportunities in other areas. In fact that’s just what happened with Anna – she applied for a different role at New Zealand King Salmon and was asked if she would be interested in this Team Leader position which was a great fit for her skillset.

Source: Salmon-Tales-Spring-2020-web-version.pdf (kingsalmon.co.nz)