Each month, we put the spotlight on a Tirlán employee and for our April newsletter, we’re talking to Gwen Gould

The Tirlán rebrand has provided an ideal opportunity for our farmer-owned cooperative to introduce uniform packaging across all products and ingredients, build on our new identity, promote our core values and plan for the future, Senior Marketing Manager Nutrition Gwen Gould says.

The Carlow native, who works in Commercial Ingredients, says it’s been absolutely non-stop since the re-brand late last summer and the launch of the complete protein offering, Promiko, in the midst of it showed how agile, enthusiastic and driven the entire team is.

“Our new identity has been really well received. Everyone loved Glanbia Ireland. But being able to create a new identity, build on our core values, celebrate where we’ve come from and look to the future sits very well. Our customers all over the world understand where we have come from and what our vision and mission for the future is.

“From September onwards, our key focus was on our international markets, Japan the US and Europe, introducing our new name, telling the story behind it and reinforcing with our customers that while our identity had changed, our people hadn’t and our world-class ingredients hadn’t.

“With the company restructure and rebrand came an exciting opportunity to change all of our packaging. Some of it was the exact same since the Waterford Co-op days. We grasped this unique opportunity to bring our new identity to life through our packaging and bring consistency to it. It has taken a huge team effort and has been so incredibly worthwhile.

“At the very same time that all this was happening, we got to launch our new sports category brand. The separation from Glanbia gave us an opportunity to promote Promiko to our customers and that too has been very well received.”

There isn’t a typical day, per se, for Gwen, who joined Tirlán in 2018 and started out in the consumer wing of the business. “My role very much involves looking at how we promote our brand, both Tirlán, Tirlán Ingredients and our ingredient brands; how we showcase our capabilities and our talents and expertise within the business and how we apply these through our high quality ingredients and make our customer’s products better.

“We promote our products, people and capabilities through industry platforms. We create webinars and we showcase our brand at trade shows. We now have an opportunity to meet our customers on site at our state-of-the-art new Innovation Centre and Collaboration Hub. My weekly agenda is very much based around what product we’re promoting at the time.

“The best part of the job is seeing all our work come together for webinars, customer visits, trade shows etc. It’s incredible to see the whole team work together, bringing the brand, the power behind it and what it has to offer to life. People want to talk to us, they want to talk about us. They believe in who we are and what we do.
“The most challenging part at times can be keeping all the plates spinning, keeping all of the balls in the air. But to be honest, I thrive on it and I wouldn’t be happy in a quieter job.”

And what does Gwen do to unwind, to recharge and step away from it all? “I like to run. I run a lot with my running buddy during the week and with my sister at weekends. I’m doing more trail running at the moment, which gives me an opportunity to appreciate the mountains and the forests at the same time.”