Meet Cletus Salia, Senior Category Buyer here at Yodel, and, as we recently discovered, a budding entrepreneur with his own candle making business.
As part of our Outside the Box series, we caught up with Cletus to talk about his time at Yodel and his newly found hobby turned business.
Q: What is your role within Yodel?
A: I’m a Senior Category Buyer in Procurement responsible for transport; trunking services, final mile delivery, partial fleet and operations at Yodel. I’ve been here just over 6 months and worked on some exciting projects. One of those was procuring a strategic service partner to support us in delivering parcels offshore in the Northern and remote parts of Scotland.
Q: How have you found your six months working at Yodel?
A: I’ve loved it! From the first week I jumped straight into e-procurement, diving into contracts from the off. I have previous experience within the industry but it was still a learning curve understanding how the business functions from the inside.
I’ve enjoyed networking across the business and getting to know how such a large operation runs. People have been so welcoming; it’s been great so far. I come from a military background, having toured all over the world over the last 10 years.
The transition into civilian life has been seamless for me, and I learnt fantastic core values in the armed forces, such as the importance of presentation, loyalty and accountability. I’ve been able to transfer and apply these at Yodel and I’m now a Military Ambassador here too.
Q: What hobbies do you have outside of work?
A: I like to keep fit and exercise, that’s important to me. I also enjoy reading and writing articles on LinkedIn and other portals when I get the chance; I developed this skill post my master’s degree completion in supply chain management which was challenging but rewarding. And of course, candle making!
Q: Can you tell us a little more about your candle making
A: Well, what started as a simple passion and a gesture of gifting to friends and family has blossomed into a thriving business! I have a keen eye for finer things in life and a belief that good taste should always be accompanied by value for money, and our aim is to grow and expand our business, "House of Cassidy Lifestyles Ltd".
Q: What is it you enjoy about doing it?
A: Mixing the scents to define the product, and actually making it too. I also love being involved in the process of creating a great customer experience and responding to customer reviews. And yes, of course, we use Yodel Direct to send them to customers!