In this series, we speak to the people behind Covetrus. This week, we sat down with Field Sales Consultant, Georgia Walker, who has been working with Covetrus for over four years. But why did she join us in the first place? This vegan, science grad originally from Wales, tells us it’s all down to her love of animals.
“I would love to be more hands on with the animals but, I also wanted to pursue a challenging career in something new, which territory managing certainly is! I worked for six years at my local veterinary practice every Saturday whilst at school, sixth form and university. I’ve been vegetarian for years, but more recently taken the plunge to go vegan…I’ve gone cold turkey, pun intended!”
Georgia reveals that if she wasn’t on the road with Covetrus, her love for food or beauty may just have taken over: “[I’m] very passionate about cruelty-free cosmetics and trying new vegan recipes. I considered starting a YouTube channel called ‘MAKEUP MENU’ so I could do make up review videos and also baking!”
Priding herself as an advocate for animal welfare, the Welsh native sees her work as an indirect means to help our four-legged friends—knowing that providing stellar support to her vets helps the animals, by proxy.
An average day starts with emails, and normally a conference call with the team, while time spent out and about—which is a lot for an FSC—is spent visiting practices:
“I’ll go and grab some cake, doughnuts or a little sweet treat and meet with the practice manager, do a business review, go through all the offers and see how I can support the practice.”
Georgia offers practices a business review by analysing trends in their spend, year-on-year/month-on-month, on pharmaceuticals, vaccinations, and suppliers.
“I’ll find out as much as I can about their needs and, for example, book Tim in or connect them if they need equipment…it’s the same with Lisa from Diagnostics, or if it’s a RoboVet customer I’d speak to Henry. A lot of my role is about discovering and fact-finding in the field and then divvying that out to the right person from my team.”
You may even find her helping in a practice given her education in Bioveterinary Science:
“Emerald Vets in Wales is a lovely key account of mine, always very welcoming and happy to show me the cases that they have in when I visit. I’ve been known to be drying off a newborn pup whilst discussing Covetrus services with the staff there…Marches Vets is also where I did my taster in clinic days, although I already had practice experience it was a great relationship building opportunity and I saw some very interesting procedures, including a postmortem on a sheep brain!”
And as the year comes to a close, Georgia’s eyes are fixed firmly on some downtime with her rescue dog Darcy and boyfriend James, an architect with whom she’s busy doing home renovations, prepping for a new kitchen—presumably for plenty more vegan cooking!
“Christmas plans? HOME! I am a dog mum to rescue pup Darcy dog, so we love to be at home with her and family. Greggs vegan mince pies, and a cheeky mulled wine! My birthday is early January too, so we are booked for Doggy Afternoon Tea…then next year, I’m off to New Zealand and Australia….
A work goal is to continue to work closely with my colleagues, represent Covetrus and all we have to offer for its first full year, and it’s the start of a new decade! I am in this for the independent practices which I support. I hope next year will bring more certainty to this industry and many others as all the political issues calm down!”
A big thank you to Georgia for chatting to us, and do stay tuned to the Covetrus blog for interviews, industry news and lots more, and don’t forget to join in the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.