Key segments
When Whitmore joined forces with Shell , everything – and nothing – changed . Bret reflects on the landmark moment : “ It is a fifty-fifty joint venture . I came from the Whitmore side , and my boss , Heather Rogers , came from the Shell side .
“ It ’ s essentially been a process of building a whole new company with two parent firms that have a very long legacy in the mining space . We ’ re a relatively small company and Shell is huge – so we had to do a lot of things differently .
“ Having the support of our parent companies means we now have the power to get our products out there ,” he goes on . “ We can occupy a top-tier space in the market .
“ Despite our rapid growth , we ’ ve still got our entrepreneurial spirit , which means we ’ re able to move quickly when making big decisions – sometimes on the fly . The Whitmore identity is still very much there .
“ Shell & Whitmore Reliability Solutions as a company is quite small , and focused on key segments : Rail and Mining ,” admits Bret . “ We ’ re always in contact with each other . Everyone always says their company has a family-like culture , but in our case , I really believe that it ’ s true . Everyone has a voice ; no one is a number .”
As the Director of Sales & Service , Bret knows that in order to make Shell & Whitmore a successful business , it must create and support quality products . “ By that , I mean we have to always provide best-in-class service for the customer ; we always want to be involved ,” he details .
“ I pride myself on leading a team of great people ,” Bret continues . “ We really do put our money where our mouth is . We lead with Demonstrated Value Records ( DVRs ), so we go to our customers and clients at the end of the year and assess ourselves against these DVRs .
“ It might be that , over the course of the year , we ’ ve managed to save them $ 500,000 on oil drain interval changes or we might have noticed something wrong in their processes and by changing it for them we ’ re now helping them deliver more value .
“ In my role ,” he goes on . “ I coordinate our people and make sure that they ’ re always in the right place at the right time , and that we ’ re all following the same strategy . In doing so , that improves our customers ’ experience and impacts our clients ’ bottom line .”
New solutions
As our conversation winds to a close , we ’ re excited to learn about Shell & Whitmore ’ s plans for future growth and product development . Fortunately , there ’ s no one better to tell us all about them than Bret .
“ Okay , well , for starters ,” Bret says , before quickly pausing . “ Sometimes I get too nerdy ! So , just stop me if I go full nerd !”
He laughs , but his passion is evident . “ First , we have some really exciting new
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