meet our new team member!
Purus has the pleasure of welcoming a new colleague who will work with our export sales in southern Europe. Here you get to know a little more about José!
Welcome to Purus, José! Who are you?
– I am Italian and have lived in Sweden for about 20 years. As you might guess, it was neither the weather nor the food that made me move here, but my love for a Swedish woman. We met while working at Harrods in London. As a trained sea captain, my plan was to work there to improve my English and then travel around the world. Instead, we ended up – after a week’s holiday in Tenerife – down there in the sun, which we missed after three years in London.
After working in various roles in the restaurant industry, I trained as a real estate agent and for a few years ran my own estate agency in Tenerife while my wife worked as a tour guide. The time in the Canary Islands improved my Spanish skills.
When did you learn to speak Swedish so well?
– When we started a family, we moved to Sweden. Here I have worked, among other things, in the restaurant world, at the chemical company Perstorp AB for ten years in various sales-related roles, some of which involved exports, as well as at Emmaljunga where my task was to sell prams to other countries in Europe. Swedish products generally have a good reputation abroad. Many people associate Swedish brands with quality and safety.
During the pandemic, it was not possible to travel outside the country, so I worked for a time selling Crescent baby carriages in Sweden. Then it was time for a new challenge again, I felt, while I missed the traveling and new customer meetings of the export sales role.
What will your role in Purus’ export team look like?
– I will have 99% focus on new customer processing, initially in Italy and France. In addition to Italian, Spanish, English and Swedish, I speak and understand some Portuguese and French.
The goal is to build more customer relationships that can develop into safe resellers of Purus’ products within the niche that Export has seen the most potential in and has chosen to focus on; stylish and easy to install floor gullies for vinyl flooring, PUM solutions and floor drains in container manufacturing.
How will you approach floor gully technology?
– It is more difficult to learn how to communicate with customers, than to learn new product facts, is my attitude! The way I see it, selling is part of a sales person’s personality. I love customer meetings and getting to know customers’ needs. Although the sales job is partly solitary, it is also a team effort. I look forward to working side by side with Niklas, Peter and Lisa, to learn from their way of working and our product offerings.
What do you like to do outside of work?
– Then I’m often at home, which is in the south of Sweden), and spend time with family and friends. I like to cook, ride a motorbike, run, swim, be out in nature and maybe pick some mushrooms. And I like to travel!