Open To… Long Haulers

Meet Dan Urwin

Our Head of Procurement and Supply Chain Performance

Not many people can say they know a company inside out, but I feel I can make that statement about Whitbread. I first joined in 1989 in Logistics, and stayed on for 19 years. I moved right, I moved left, and of course climbed my way up as well.

An opportunity arose to come back, but this time to take on a brand new challenge in Procurement and Supply Chain. I couldn’t resist, and it’s the culture and care for people that made that decision even easier. It could have felt like putting the old comfy slippers back on, but the new nature of the opportunity meant it was quite the opposite.

Once I was in, I had a clear view of what the future looked like and was focused on making it happen. I knew what I needed from my team to get there, and over the next few years that came to fruition, almost exactly how I’d planned. That’s a feeling you don’t forget, when all the pieces start to connect and you can keep pushing ahead.

With my background and experience behind me, when I returned, I felt really trusted and respected to make the right decisions and deliver the outcomes to match.

I think the biggest learning for me has been, if you have the capability and the confidence, you can build your own destiny, and in a business like Whitbread, you’ll get the trust to go and do that. There’s literally nothing stopping you.

Even after the many years I’ve spent here, it always feels like there’s more for me (and the business) to deliver and achieve. We’re a company that’s been growing for 270 years or whatever, and we’ve still got aggressive growth plans. The ambition is there, and we all come together to get there.

We are Whitbread and we are #OpenToYou. Join us here.