Meet the Team: Merchandising and VA Services

What does your job involve?

Carmel: The majority of the time I make housebuilder boards, which involves putting tiles on the boards, in a striking design to make them look good. Once we’ve chosen the tiles we have to label each one, because obviously if someone takes them out to the housebuilder sites and they’ve got the wrong label on then it will cost the company a lot of money, so we have to be very careful. I also put together the boards for the Tile Library. 

Janet: My job involves putting orders on for the housebuilder board requests, any administration, adding stock or stock movement from the department, and that’s basically what I do in a day. I also take emails from people in different departments in the company.

Reyes: I’m a team leader and my main goal is to make sure the job gets done. Janet takes the orders for the housebuilder boards and passes them on to me, and I make sure they get done on time.

What do you enjoy most about your job?

Carmel: I enjoy making the boards, I do get a buzz seeing them all finished and when I go visiting some of the house building sites I like to see a job done. It’s a nice steady pace, as you’ve got to be careful that you don’t make any mistakes and the tiles have to be perfectly straight. 

Janet: It’s different all the time; I’m not doing the same thing every day. You deal with different customers, and across the company I deal with more or less every department so you’re not in your own little bubble. 

Reyes: We move around and do different things and projects. I can’t really say which bit I enjoy most as it’s all enjoyable to me. It can be stressful sometimes but I enjoy it.

What’s the funniest/strangest thing that’s happened to you at work?

Carmel: We do have a laugh! We did a big project for B&Q where we had to tile and grout large boards. Because we were in a team, we all mucked in together and had a good laugh doing it but it was nice to see them all finished! And you can go to B&Q and see them all up on the wall. It’s nice doing a project like that, it’s like team building and it’s good for the department.

Janet: I used to work after everyone had gone, and one night I heard an almighty crash and some tiles had actually fallen from the rafters onto the floor. We were scared for a long time after that, nobody liked sitting in here on their own!

Are there any projects you’ve been involved with or particular achievements that you’re most proud of?

Carmel: The B&Q project – it was great for the company as a whole. I am also proud of the boards for the Tile Library.

Reyes: B&Q because it was a big project, probably the biggest job we’ve ever had. It was quite intense but very interesting. 

Do you ever do any DIY or tiling at home yourself?

Carmel: I’ve done little projects myself, but I haven’t taken on any big projects – although I could, as you learn a lot working here. 

Janet: Just little bits, tiled splash backs and things like that.

Reyes: I did my kitchen, my bathroom, my mother-in-law’s kitchen, and a lot of other things.

What’s your favourite Johnson Tiles product?

Carmel: Vivid are nice and they’re popular, but there’s that many it’s hard to choose.

Janet: At the moment I’d say that Savoy would be mine.

Who or what inspires you (either for work or away from work)?

Carmel: I’ve always been an independent person so if I do something I always like to see it through to the end, so I inspire myself I suppose. My parents inspired me to work, and that was it. My kids as well!

Janet: My family I would say, especially my daughter with her achievements at university.

Reyes: My family…and my mortgage – that inspires me to work!

What do you do to relax away from work?

Carmel: I like socialising, going out for meals and I like playing games on my iPad.

Janet: I’ve got a tablet and I like playing games like Candy Crush and Witch Saga.

Reyes: I go to the gym to get rid of my stress 

What music is on your playlist at the moment?

Carmel: Sam Smith, Ollie Murs, Michael Buble, Pharrell Williams, Coldplay, Drake, John Newman, The Feeling, Beyonce… and those are just on my playlist at the moment.

Janet: Michael Buble, John Newman and Lionel Ritchie, I also listen to Northern Soul. We listen to all kinds of music on the radio at work; we have Signal 2 on in the morning and Signal 1 on in the afternoon for more current music.

Reyes: I like Usher, Chris Brown, John Legend.

What books are you reading?

Carmel: Cheryl Cole’s autobiography, Cheryl: My Story. I like autobiographies.

Janet: I’ve started Paul O’Grady’s autobiography but I tend to do more on my tablet than actually sit and read.

At Johnson Tiles we believe the display of our products should reflect and present the quality, variety and seamless design of the tiles themselves. 

The team that ensures all of our visual displays do just that is Merchandising and VA Services. Carmel Burke, Janet Merricks and Reyes Garcia are part of the team that construct the boards for our Tile Library, create our housebuilder boards for clients to use on site, and design the visual displays for our high street partners.