The MD of Roundhill Consultancy, Gareth boasts decades of strategic expertise in risk, compliance, ESG and quality. He previously led compliance at the likes of TCM Living, Silentnight and QFC, and now advises businesses on governance, sustainability, and operational excellence.
How might a child describe what you do?
He’s the police man (or rather, the man who helps the police stop bad products).
What’s the biggest long-term challenge you face?
Dealing with the industry slowdown has caused budgets to shrink, and therefore, the reprioritisation of resources within a business. My main contract comes from outside the industry, and that is telling when you consider just how much legislative change is on the horizon and how ill-prepared businesses are for selling in Northern Ireland.
If you had 10 x your working budget, what would you spend it on?
Development of an off-the-shelf, updated compliance system that would integrate with every business, sharing the burden of testing and ensuring that consumers buy a safe and compliant product that is also environmentally sound.
In turn, this would level the cost playing field for the businesses that are already striving forward with compliance. They would perhaps feel as though the others would now be spending proportionately the same on compliance and environmental issues.
What would be the title of your autobiography?
I’m not the ‘Sales Prevention Officer’, honest
What does ‘work/life balance’ mean to you?
Everything. You're only alive once, and we already spend a huge amount of time at work. Don’t keep planning for the future – use work-life balance to live.
Who’s been your most influential professional mentor?
I’ve been lucky to work with five great people in our industry: Sara Jackson and Andy Pinder, who were my reports at QFC, but who pushed me every day to be better and learn more; Rob Livingstone, who let me run with ideas far above what was probably safe for his sanity; Angela Moran, who, as well as someone who is fiercely loyal to her colleagues, also had an insatiable appetite for pushing the ESG agenda at Silentnight (I learnt so much about ESG from her) and finally, Tristine Hargreaves, who was my first mentor as I joined the industry, and has taught me all I know about standards and testing.
What advice would you give your younger self?
Don’t panic about not knowing what you want to do when you grow up – it all works itself out in the end.
What’s been your best day in business to date?
At Roundhill, it was the most recent British Furniture Association (BFA) technical day, finally allowing me to reach a big audience.
In the industry, it was certainly the day that QFC donated sofas to the flood victims of the Lake District. We wanted to do more, but we hope what we managed was just enough to help some folks out.
What’s the biggest myth about our industry?
That compliance is costly. It is if you attack it piecemeal, but if you afford investment up front into a risk-based system, then it doesn’t need to be, and can be a direct cost as opposed to an overhead.
What should everyone in our industry either stop or start doing?
Start considering the future of your product during the design cycle. How can you re-monetise, but keep the product with customers longer? How can you benefit from the re-use economy (that is, find a commodity value to returned items, both financially and for re-use purposes)?
Where do you see the industry going in the next 5-10 years?
The UK manufacturing base is at risk from imports. However, we make a great product here and should be more ‘Italy’. Exporting has to be a viable way to combat imported products. As no-one wants Trump-style tariffs in the UK, we should also strive to export as much or more than what we import.
Gareth can be reached by email at [email protected]
