On Thursday 29th December over 120 G’s colleagues, past and present gathered to remember G’s Supply Chain Director, friend, and long-time colleague Neil Cotterell.
Neil Cotterell
After a long battle with cancer, Neil passed away on the 2nd of December peacefully with his wife Gabi and close sister Jean by his side.
Neil worked with G’s for over 17 years, first at the Leafy Salads factory until 2005, and after a short break, again in 2008 leading the supply chain and logistics teams. Throughout his time at G’s, Neil had an incredible impact both within G’s and the wider Supply Chain industry.
Neil was instrumental in establishing and developing the direct supply logistics model from Spain into UK supermarket depots, delivering fresh produce faster and fresher to the UK consumer.
Neil with his team led the G’s preparations for Brexit. Today Neil’s Supply Chain team are responsible for moving over 400 trucks per week out of Spain and the associated customs clearance.
Kuldip Kular G’s Fresh COO stated in tribute: “I decided to look up the dictionary definition of the word legend and in the case of Neil, the word legend refers to an individual that has excelled in a particular field and in Neil’s case it has all been about setting up an infrastructure almost from scratch of trucks coming directly from suppliers (not just G’s) in Spain into the depots of retailers. Both Jon Bailey (Sainsburys) and Adam Chalklin (Tesco) described that what Neil has done is a complete game changer for Logistics out of Spain – there is no higher accolade than that which is given by your customers. He worked tirelessly with Spanish Hauliers year after year to perfect the model and keep increasing the numbers of trucks.”
Neil worked for G’s for over the course of three decades making many friends along the way, Neil will always be a valued member of the G’s family and will be sorely missed.