✍️ What is your name, and what do you do at Arvid Nordquist?

💬 My name is Johan Fessé, and I work as a Business Controller at Arvid Nordquist, where I've been for seven years, the past year in a leadership role. I joined Arvid Nordquist in 2016 in connection with the Kellogg's & Pringles business. Before that, I worked at Menigo and have around 20 years of experience in the food industry, including at the food wholesaler Servera and Norrmejerier. My role as Business Controller is mainly to ensure that the company stays on the right track to meet its sales and operational goals. To support the departments in their work, I develop data-driven decision-making tools for both strategic and tactical planning.

✍️ What qualities are important for your role?

💬 The ability to understand both details and the bigger picture at the same time. The analysis needs to be thorough and focused on the details to provide solid foundations for further decisions. In my role, you can't just see numbers in columns, even if you're good at it; I need to acquire industry-specific knowledge, product and category expertise, and also build relationships internally with the colleagues who will take my reports forward in the organization and decision-making processes. A solid education, such as a degree in economics or engineering, is essential.

✍️ What excites you the most about your role?

💬 Definitely the challenge of helping colleagues understand the connections and analyses while I also need to understand the category and the behavior of producers, customers, and consumers. Somewhere within these moving factors, my analysis should serve as a compass. It's not easy, but it's an exciting challenge. Another thing I find stimulating is that I often get involved early in the process, whether it's with product launches or entirely new business ventures.

✍️ What is the best part of working as a Business Controller at Arvid Nordquist?

💬 We manage many brands under our umbrella, which makes the team's workdays varied. This creates a great dynamic as we don't just work with a single aspect of one brand’s business but across different categories and brands. The fact that our brands and products are well-known FMCG products is a bonus, as they are easier to relate to both personally and in collaboration with others. On top of that, it's both challenging and enjoyable to work alongside so many highly skilled colleagues at Arvid Nordquist!